One Piece Island of the Dragon God
by gomu gomu1982
Summary: Luffy and the crew must rescue Nami from a false God on the mysterious walled island of Huang-long. Note: Takes place after Skypiea, but before the Davy Back Fight.
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

A Lunch With Destiny

_The Grand Line, the ocean of dreams, a place where anything can happen. Where one can encounter things thought to only exist in fairy tales, such as a man living inside a giant whale, or an island where dinosaurs and giants roam, or an island up in the clouds. Truly the Grand Line is a place that shocks and amazes all who behold it, yet it is a place of great peril as well as awe. Known also as the pirate graveyard, the Grand Line isn't a place for those without the strength or will to survive. In all the years it has been known, only one crew, one man, ever conquered this great ocean; the Pirate King Gold Roger. For years after his death many tried and failed to follow the path he laid out, but as the era reached it's peek, many gave the idea up as another fairy tale. Fantasy or not, right or wrong, there is still one crew among the sea of pirates that dares to chase this dream. One man with the will to become the next Pirate King..._

_***_

It's another randomly beautiful day out on the ocean of dreams. Random as the weather can go from sunny to stormy without warning, that's the kind of place the Grand Line is.

The Going Merry sails along smoothly towards the next island the Log Pose points to, thanks to its ever vigilant keeper, Nami. She sits out on the main deck in a fold-out chair, reading the newspaper, but is ever watchful of the direction of the Log Pose. Nami is even more watchful of the treacherous weather, a talent that has saved this ship many times before. Luffy, the unassuming captain, sits dangerously on the port side railing, fishing (dangerous for him since as a Devil Fruit User he can't swim). He has an ignorantly blissful grin on his face, an expression no one would expect to find on the face of a man worth 100,000,000 Beri. Such things don't ever cross his mind though, food on the other hand crosses his mind every 5 minutes or so.

"SANJI!" Luffy groans, "I'm hungry! Isn't lunch ready yet?!"

Luffy pouts, his lips stuck out like a goldfish, ever waiting for his next oversized meal. The never ending chore of feeding this bottomless pit of a captain falls on Sanji, top flight sea chief of the Straw-hat Pirates. He bites down on his cigarette, which he shouldn't smoking while cooking anyway, and pops his head out the main cabin door.

"Damn it Luffy!" Sanji yells back, "Can't you at least wait for the food to be cooked?!"

"But I'm hungry..." Luffy retorts.

"You're always hungry, so you should be used to it by now!" Sanji pulls his cigarette out and blows a line of smoke, "Besides I have to take extra special care of the delectables I make for Nami-san and Robin-chan."

Sanji's annoyance magically vanishes at the thought of the two lovely ladies that grace their vessel; the young, cute, fiery, self assured, modern girl, Nami, and the elegant, graceful, mature beauty, Robin. The thought of making either of them grateful to him fills him with a burning drive to do anything, and endure any hardship. Robin, who's on the upper deck writing in her journal, smiles politely and commends her would be suitor for his culinary efforts.

"How very thoughtful of you Mr. Cook." she says softly.

Sanji's one exposed eye turns into a heart and he turns all his attention to Robin.

"Of course," he replies, "anything for you Robin-chwan!"

Zoro, who's sitting on the main deck, back to the wall, is ever in the process of of training. He's taking it light today, only training with his 100lb (each) dumbbells. Zoro's opinion on Sanji's priorities is less than great. Anyone can see Nami has him wrapped around her finger, and Robin is just being polite. Zoro finds no use in wasting energy on such pointless pursuits and feels the need to enlighten Sanji from time to time.

"Idiot." Zoro says plainly.

Sanji snaps back without skipping a comedic beat, "Shut up Moss Head, no one asked you!"

The two begin their daily routine of petty arguing. Nami turns her attention away from them and towards Usopp, who is on the front deck tinkering.

"What are you doing over there Usopp?" Nami asks, "You've been pretty distracted ever since we got back from sky island."

Usopp, a self made amateur inventor, is always looking for ways to improve his arsenal. Usopp turns to Nami and holds up one of the shells he was working on.

"I got a lot of dials while we in Skypiea, so I'm trying to incorporate them into a new slingshot." Usopp explains, "Once I'm done I plan to do the same to your Clima-tact."

Nami nods in approval, but takes a stern tone, "Well just make sure you leave out the party favors this time, alright?"

Nami, speaking of course of the first time she used the Clima-tact, and half it's attacks ended up being party tricks. Usopp gulps, remembering the beating Nami gave him after the civil war in Alabasta was over.

"I already told you I sorry..." he defends.

Chopper, the tiny reindeer-human (or human-reindeer), is sitting next to Luffy, fishing with him. He turns back to look at Nami and Usopp.

"Nami is scary some times." Chopper says quietly.

He thinks back to having had healed more injuries caused by Nami's scolding than by actual enemies (though Chopper may be exaggerating). Just then Chopper gets a tug on his line.

"Ah!" Chopper squeaks, "I got something!"

He tries reeling it in, but it almost feels like it's stuck. He pulls in hard, and it fights even harder. Luffy steps in to help Chopper. They both pull together and manage to pull the whopper up, but are surprised by their "catch". They find an elderly man, hanging from the rear of his clothes by the hook, holding a medium sized trout. The old man offers it out to them and smiles awkwardly.

"Um, thanks?" Chopper replies.

***

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughs, his mouth full of fresh cooked ramen. "So you were fishing too and caught the fish that was already on Chopper's line, and got tangled up in it? You're pretty stupid Gramps."

Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Chopper and Robin find them selves sitting on a bench that extends outside the old man's ship, which is now tethered to the Going Merry. The ship seems to be a kind of floating ramen kiosk.

The old man feverishly makes fresh noodles and boils them in his special broths, chopping up different meats and vegetables to add to kind. The old man looks to be about in his mid 60's, he has long gray hair, the top covered by a fez-like hat, a long gray beard, but no mustache, and simple kind eyes that make him seem younger than he is.

He's dressed in a fine looking yellow robe, with a light blue robe underneath, and it's all tied off with a white sash. Nami swallows what she was chewing to ask the old man a question, "So, you run a small ramen stand in the middle of the Grand Line? That seems a bit strange."

The old man laughs politely as fills up another bowl for Luffy.

"You would be surprised how well I do out here young lady." He replies, "This being the great pirate era, I get lots of travelers, both pirates and marines. Just so long as no one tries to rob me, it's perfectly safe."

He laughs at his own joke. Nami makes a half smile, half "yeah right" expression. Luffy finishes yet another (now up to ten) bowl and holds it out.

"More please." he says while still chewing the previous noodles.

The old man manages to have another ready for him and hands it over. Zoro, having already eaten a few bowls him self, drinks some sake out of the bottle. Robin and Nami are still on their first bowls, eating in a much less outrageous manner. Usopp has his face stuffed with ramen, pork and egg, all while trying to commend the chief.

Chopper eats in his human form since it's easier to hold chop sticks that way. Sanji, who finally finished the special garnishing for the ladies special lunches, comes out of the cabin.

"Well my sweets," Sanji declares in full love cook mode, "your extra special lunch is ready to be enjo..."

Sanji stops short when he notices no one is on deck.

Luffy calls out to Sanji from below, "Sanji!"

Sanji looks down over the port side and sees everyone already eating after he spent all that time cooking.

"What the hell is this!?" Sanji asks, "I just finished the lunch YOU asked for and now I find I find you guys eating out!?"

Sanji holds the two special dishes for Nami and Robin in his two hands.

"What am I supposed to do with all this food now?"

Luffy stretches up an arm and snatches Nami's special lunch.

"Hey damn it!" Sanji snaps at Luffy.

Luffy stuffs it into his mouth, "What? Can't waste food..."

"That was for Nami-san you rubber bastard!"

Sanji turns to Robin, who smiles politely, "I'm sorry Mr. Cook, but it would rude to refuse our guest. You can just wrap mine up and I'll eat it later..."

Later won't happen as Luffy steals that food while Sanji's distracted. Luffy gives Robin a thumbs up for distracting Sanji and she laughs quietly.

Sanji yells at Luffy again, "Knock that off damn it!"

He gives up and comes down, and the old man hands him a bowl. Sanji looks for an ashtray, but finds none. The old man explains, "This is a place of eating young man, no smoking here. Don't tell me you smoke while you cook?"

Sanji grimaces, if not entirely for the fact that the old man was right. He takes very specific notice of the ramen, studying the flavor of the broth and the texture of the noodles.

"This soup is amazing old man." Sanji admits, "How do you make this broth? What kind of spices do you use?"

The old man smiles confidently, "Sorry, but I can't just go handing over my secrets to every customer that asks you know."

Nami looks around and notices there aren't any islands within sight, but the old man's ship is too low for long distance travel.

"Hey, Mister," Nami asks, "How can you travel out so far into the sea with such a low vessel?"

The old man smiles at her knowledge of seamanship, "You noticed that did you? Well you see, the boat is only this low when customers are on board, when that happens the lower deck takes on a controlled amount of water. When I want the ship to rise, I use a special pump that's built in that deck to drain it."

Nami is impressed, "Wow, that's pretty ingenious Mister. Did they make this boat on your home island?"

"Yes, it was custom built for my shop back on my home island of Huang-long." The old man explains.

Luffy blows out a burp of satisfaction and turns his interest to the conversation.

"So Gramps, is this Long place interesting?" Luffy asks.

"Why yes, it's really quite a remarkable place. It's shaped like a large octagon, and surrounded by a giant stone wall, which has protected the island from all invaders for as long as the island has existed."

Luffy's eyes sparkle with the spirit of adventure, "Awesome!" Luffy exclaims, "I smell adventure."

Nami sighs, knowing Luffy is now dead set on going.

"Would you like to go there young man?" the old man asks.

Nami steps in to set Luffy straight, "That's great and all, but unless our Log Pose is pointing to it we won't be able to find it. Even if you gave us an Eternal Pose it would mess up the record of our Pose, so it's really up to luck if we can go there."

"Not quite young lady." the old man explains, "the island has no magnetic field of it's own so it won't effect your Pose. You see the island is artificial."

"What?" Nami inquires, as the rest of the crew takes notice, "How could someone MAKE an island?"

"The island was made by the Divine Dragon God, Huang-long, for whom the island is named." He continues, "Huang-long is the guardian deity of the island, and protects it from harm. The great wall was erected so the Divine Dragon wouldn't be burdened by constant threats from the outside."

Luffy gets even more excited, now shaking his knees up and down. The old man continues, "But while the wall protects the island it has also closed it off from the outside world. It has remained frozen in time, unaffected by the concerns of others."

This statement peeks Robin's interest, "Are you saying that the island has never had contact with the World Government?" Robin asks.

"That is correct young lady."

Robin thinks out loud, "...then perhaps they could still have a ponyglyph there, or even still actively know about what happened in the _Blank Century_..."

"I don't know anything about Pony-Gliffs," The old man adds, "but there is plenty of untold history on the island, as no one has ever entered the island to be told about it..." He pauses to correct him self, "Actually, that's not true. There was someone who breached the wall and entered the island. It was about 20 years or so ago. A pirate, a brash man with a fiery will and nerves of steel. I believe his name was...Roger."

The whole crew has a look of shock on their faces.

Usopp manages to ask what everyone is thinking, "You mean Gold Roger, the Pirate King?"

The old man nods, "Yes, I think that was his name. He was a funny one that man, as free spirited as he was powerful. He stirred things up quite a bit." He laughs to him self.

Luffy can no longer take it; he's now determined to go to this island.

"An amazing mystery island made by a dragon that no one but the Pirate King has ever been to?" Luffy says feverishly, "Alright, it's decided, we're going to Dragon Island!"

Nami rests her head on her hand, knowing she was right. The old man is pleased by Luffy's thirst for life. He digs into on old chest near the steering wheel and pulls out a strange octagon shaped bowl. The bowl is filled with unrecognizable writing and has a ying-yang symbol in the center. He fills the bowl with water from a bottle he also removed from the chest.

"This a Divining Pose," he explains, "It's how those of us who leave the island find our way back."

Nami looks at it, but it just seems to be a bowl of water. The old man takes out a cherry blossom peddle and places it on top of the water. The peddle starts to change direction on its own, positioning the tip of the blossom in a specific direction. Nami isn't convinced.

"It's just a peddle floating in a bowl of water." She adds, "How can this lead us anywhere?"

The old man moves the peddle with his finger, but it returns to its original position on it's own. "This will always point to Huáng-lóng, no matter where you are in the world." he explains, "It is a special divining tool that seeks out the power of the Divine Dragon. Follow it and it will surely take you to my home island."

Sanji looks up at the old man, "How will YOU get home old man?" Sanji asks.

"Don't worry, I have a few spares, they are easier to make than a Log Pose..."

Luffy takes the bowl and smiles, "Thanks Gramps." Luffy says, "Alright, our next stop is Dragon Island!"

***


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

Island of the Divine Dragon God, Huang-long

The Going Merry sails ahead, following the direction the cherry blossom points to. Nami is still uncertain and flicks the peddle every so often, but it always returns to its original position. Luffy sits on the ship's main head piece, as he always does, waiting anxiously for their arrival. Zoro naps on the main deck, nothing better to do than that or train, at least in his mind anyway. Usopp continues work on what looks like a staff-slingshot combination, just in case he comes down with another case of "can't go to the next island disease". Sanji makes tea and sweets for the ladies and rice balls for everyone else. Chopper sits in the crow's nest and looks out at the endless blue sea. Finally we find Robin, reading an antique book that seems to hold insight on the mysterious "Dragon Island".

"It says here," Robin explains, "the people of this island were refugees, they left their home due to great war, but sailed without direction for weeks. It seems this predates the Log Pose, so it was before people could safely travel from island to island."

Sanji hands her a cup of tea and some small chocolate confections.

"Robin-chan," Sanji asks, "did you manage to find a book on that weird island the old man mentioned?"

"No, the old ramen cook gave me this book before we departed. He said he admired my respect for history." she smiles gently at this, considering it a great compliment. "So," Robin continues, "when all hope seemed lost, the refugees prayed to their guardian deity, Huang-long. Their prayers were answered when the Dragon God descended from the heavens and dived into the sea. When he arose, there was a large mass of land, ripe with life. They settled there and built a city, Jing-long. To prevent another outside war from driving them from their new home, they built a great wall that surrounded the entire island, and remained walled off from the entire world since."

Nami takes a sip of tea and looks at the Divining Pose.

"I wonder," She says, "could that story really be true?"

Robin closes the book and sets it aside, then replaces it with a small pastry.

"It's hard to say where to draw the line between history and folklore," Robin answers, "but based on the details, the island could have formed from a large hunk of falling rock, like a meteor, or a large volcanic rock. Volcanic matter is very fertile so islands made from them tend to be very lush. Though I can't account for the descending dragon or the time frame they were out at sea..."

Robin is interrupted by a voice from above, "HEY GUYS!" Chopper yells from the crow's nest, "I see a big rock up ahead on the horizon!"

Everyone looks forward. "Rock?" Nami says to her self, but it soon it becomes clear. Not a rock, but stone, a giant stone wall is directly ahead of the ship.

Nami gasps, "Incredible..."

"You aren't kidding," Sanji agrees, "I'm starting to think dragons might just be real..."

"AWE-SOME!!!" Luffy shouts, sparkles in his eyes.

Usopp drops what he's doing, speechless as the scope of the wall becomes clear.

Nami steps down to the main deck and whacks Zoro on the head.

"Wake up you lazy bum!" she commands.

Zoro grabs his now throbbing head.

"Owe! Damn it Nami what'd you do that...for.?"

Zoro sees what everyone else sees, three massive walls, made out of solid stone, reaching all the way up to the heavens.

"What the hell?" Zoro says.

Robin joins everyone on deck, composed, but no less amazed.

"So this is the great walled island of Huang-long..." Robin says calmly.

The ship's sail is raised to slow the ship to a halt as it approaches the wall.

"Um..." Nami begins to ask what everyone is thinking, "How do we get in?"

Luffy holds his chin and turns his head, straining the few parts of his brain that process though.

"Maybe..." Luffy says, "we should knock?"

The whole crew (except Robin) waves their hands in front on their faces, with a lethargic expression, "No way that would work..." they all reply at once.

Luffy pulls back as if about to pitch a baseball, winding his arm up, then fires off a hard stretching punching at the wall. The impact makes a loud shaking sound, like a small earthquake. The crew (except Robin, still) all have a shocked cartoonish expression on their faces, "YOU MORON!!!", they all yell at Luffy. Luffy crosses his arms and looks at the wall, disappointed.

"No one answered, maybe no one's home." Luffy thinks out loud.

Nami rubs her forehead and corrects Luffy, "Or course no one answered, there's no way that would wor..." Nami is cut off by a strange voice from above.

"Attention foreigners! You will cease all aggression at once! No one is permitted inside the country of Huang-long! Turn your vessel around immediately or we will open fire!" The crew is stunned Luffy's idea worked. They look up at the wall and find a soldier poking out of an opening towards the center of the wall. Luffy spots the man and starts to address him.

"Hey! We just came to visit, honest!" Luffy yells.

The soldier is un-amused by Luffy's response, "Didn't you hear me? No outsiders, period!" the soldier replies, "How did you even find this island anyway?"

Luffy grabs the Divining Pose and holds it up, "The old ramen guy gave this bowl to us and we followed it here!" Luffy says bluntly.

The soldier recognizes the bowl as genuine. He turns to his comrade, "That's a Divining Pose, where could they have gotten one of those?"

"Maybe they stole it from one of the trading expeditions?" The other soldier suggests.

Luffy doesn't give up, continuing to hound the soldier. The soldier has no time to respond as he gets an unexpected visitor.

"What is all this nonsense I hear about a foreign invader?" says a sly, devious voice.

The guard turns to see a shifty, middle aged man standing by the door.

"Qing lóng-sama." the soldier says as he bows to greet him.

Qing lóng was a thin, suspicious looking man. He bore a long beard, braided its whole length, and a very long but very thin mustache. His long hunter green hair was pulled back, covered by what appeared to be an elaborate hat or crown.

He wore long golden robes with a silky purple robe underneath that went up past his neck, all tied together with a rich silk sash. His eyes were beady and shifted around as if he suspected everyone of foul play. He stroked his beard as he approached the soldier.

"Vice-roy sir," the soldier explains, "it seems to be some random group of travelers, they claim to be here to 'visit'..."

The Vice-roy looks out at the ship, but all he sees is a rabble of foreign devils.

"Humph," he scoffs, "Nothing but barbarians, you can't trust outsiders. Not a civilized one among them..."

He stops as something, or somethings catch his eye. He spots Nami on the deck and notices that she possesses attributes the local women do not.

"Oh my..." he mutters.

The Vice-roy turns to his aid, who was waiting over by the door. A tall, effeminate man, with wavy golden hair and a thin down turn nose, somewhat like Robin's but more prominent. He has a snobbish, superior air about him, a trait common to those born with good looks.

"Xuan Wu," the Vice-roy commands, "I have just received a vision from the Divine Dragon. That fiery foreign girl has been chosen by him. Quickly, snatch her away at once." He turns back to the soldier, "Guardsman?"

"Yes Vice-roy?" he answers.

"When Xuan Wu has secured the girl, destroy the remaining barbarians and their vessel."

"Yes Vice-roy sir!"

Luffy continues yelling at the wall, despite no one really paying attention to him. Just then the soldier returns and addresses the ship.

"Attention foreign vessel!" the soldier yells, "I've spoken to the Vice-roy and he's willing to let you enter our country, but there is one condition."

The crew light up, having expected to get no where.

"Alright," Luffy replies, "What do we have to do?"

The soldier points to Nami, "You there, red hair woman!"

Nami points to her self, "Um, me?"

"Yes, step forward!"

Nami complies.

"Now raise your arms out like this!" the soldier points his arms out, making him look like a 'T'.

Nami finds this really odd, but hesitantly complies, "...Like this?" she asks.

"Yes! Now hold that for a moment!"

Nami turns to Luffy and the others, "Why am I the one doing this? This seems like something you should be doing Luffy." Nami says with a sigh.

Luffy chuckles, rubbing his nose with his index finger. Unbeknownst to them a figure appears up in the sky, a bird, no a plane, no it was a bird. A large, almost human like bird. It has bright vermillion feathers except for it's head which looks like a golden flame. It has a long thin black beak and sharp blue eyes.

The bird swoops down at sonic speed, diving right towards Nami. Before the crew can even take notice, the large bird grabs Nami's outstretched arms and carries her away into the air.

"NAMI!" Luffy yells in a panic.

"Nami-san?!" Sanji yells as he bolts to the scene, "No way in hell I'm gonna let some bird bastard take you!"

Before any of them can go after her, cannon turrets open up along the wall and open fire on the ship.

Zoro rushes to the front deck and cuts any cannon ball close to him in half. Sanji goes to the port side and kicks away any cannon balls that come his way. Luffy sucks in air and inflates him self into a large balloon.

"Gomu Gomu no," Luffy yells, "BALLOON!"

The cannon balls all bounce right off him and back at the wall.

"Damn it," Sanji yells, "we can't keep this up forever. We need to get in there and rescue Nami-san now!"

Luffy's normal goofy expression is replaced with a fierce serious determination. Despite his lack of traditional intelligence, Luffy always knows what to do when it needs to be done.

"Then we need to bust down this stupid wall!" Luffy replies.

Luffy catches a cannon ball in his right hand and lets his arm stretch back, coiling it like a spring. He charges the wall and recoils his arm in, unraveling the coil as he does, punching right into the wall with the cannon ball.

"Gomu Gomu no Heavy Rifle!" Luffy shouts.

He drives the ball right into the wall, cracking it. The soldiers are shocked that he just did that with his fists.

"What the hell?!" one soldier yells, "Did he just crack the great wall with his fist?!"

Up in the air Nami is being carried over what looks like farmland. Up ahead in the distance she can see a large stone city filled with tall pointed buildings. The buildings are covered in curved red tiles and adorned with gold ornamenting. Nami struggles and yells at her would-be kidnapper.

"Hey you stupid bird!" Nami commands, "Let me down right now or you'll regret it!"

The bird looks down at Nami, who's surprised it understood her.

"I don't think you want me to drop you at this height outlander." the bird says, "Unless you can fly..."

Nami realizes he's not a bird, but a bird-human, "A devil fruit ability..." she says.

"That's right, I ate the Bird Bird Fruit, Model Heron. Now be quiet, we'll be at the palace soon, and we can land there."

Nami knows she can't resist in the current situation, but once on the ground she can plan her escape, assuming Luffy and the others can breech the wall.

Luffy, Sanji and Zoro continue to block cannon balls. Usopp fires exploding Stars to ease up the pressure on the monster trio. Robin forms arms on the soldiers in the look out posts and submits them, but she can't stop the cannons since she can't see the soldiers firing them. Luffy looks at Sanji and Zoro, they both know what Luffy's thinking.

Luffy stands on the head piece and begins rapidly punching the spot he cracked earlier. The force of his attack lowers the front part of the ship as he strikes, but Luffy's punches stop just short of the wall. Without pause he switches and stretches both arms back behind him. Zoro stands behind Luffy on the starboard side, and has all three of his swords drawn.

Zoro holds the main two over his head at an angle. Sanji runs from the port side and jumps towards the crack with both feet forward.

"Gomu Gomu no..."

"Santoryu - (Three Sword Style)"

"Premier..."

The monster trio unleashes their attacks on the cracked spot simultaneously

"400 Pound Cannon!!!" the three yell.

The massive attack shakes the wall like a killer tsunami, it's force nearly sinking the Going Merry. The attack leaves a giant impact crater, equal to a small meteor strike. One more attack should be enough to break the wall open.

"Holy crap!!!" one of the gaped jawed soldiers yells as he stands back up, "They almost shattered the great wall with just their bodies!"

The Vice-roy is still standing there, now very displeased that the foreigners aren't destroyed yet. He smiles and strokes his beard again; he knows just how to get rid of the intruders.

"Don't worry guardsman," the Vice-roy hisses, "I will summon the mighty Dragon God to smite these barbarians..."

The soldier is shocked and frightened. He turns to his men to warn everyone to stay clear.

"Open the front wall now!" one of the soldiers commands.

Luffy is about to try a "Gomu Gomu no Bazooka" to finish the crack in the wall off, when the cannon fire stops. Everyone looks around, not sure of what's happening. Then they hear a loud grinding sound. They look over to the left wall and see it beginning to lower.

"The wall is opening up...", Sanji pants out.

Zoro grimaces, "So, did they give up, or is it this just another trap?"

Luffy says nothing, not certain if this is good or bad. All is silent and calm. All the crew can do is stare at the opening. All at once they notice something shoot out of the opening. Not a cannon or a ship, but an enormous tail, like that of a snake or lizard. Before anyone can respond the massive tail whips out towards the ship and slams down on the water, then whips back.

It creates a giant tidal wave that sends the ship flying back, nearly capsizing it. The crew all hang on for dear life, unable to control the ship. The Merry is almost on it's side, if it lands like that it's sure to sink. Zoro turns to Sanji, "Hey cook!" He yells, "Hold on to me!"

Sanji is surprised and somewhat disgusted, "What?! Hold onto your self Zoro!" Sanji yells back.

"Just shut up and do it!"

Sanji trusts him, despite all their bickering; they both respect each other as comrades and rivals.

Sanji holds on the port side railing with his feet and holds onto Zoro's waist with his arms. Zoro pulls out two swords and holds them above his head like to perform a variation of the earlier move.

"Nana-Jū-Ni Pound Hō! (72 Pound Cannon)" Zoro yells.

He cuts the air with his two swords, creating a giant blast of deadly air pressure. The force hits the water and pushes the ship backward. The ship nearly capsizes in the other direction, causing Zoro to land on top of Sanji, but the remaining wave levels the ship out. When the ship finally stops, they find they have been blasted back so far, the island is a speck on the horizon. Luffy, who's soaking wet, punches the deck.

"Damn it! They got Nami!" Luffy yells furiously, "There's no way I'm gonna let those guys off for this!"

Sanji pushes Zoro off him and gets up. He pulls a cigarette out of its case and strikes a match, but they're all too wet to light. He bites down on the cigarette, and turns to Luffy.

"Don't worry, none of us plan on leaving Nami-san with those bastards, but we should probably wait before we counter attack."

Everyone is surprised to hear him say that, as normally Sanji would be the most impatient regarding Nami's safety.

Usopp agrees with the idea of waiting, "Sanji's right, It's not like they can fix that wall before night fall, and we still don't know what that thing was that knocked us away. We should try sneaking back with one of the dingys after night fall and see if we can get in another way."

Luffy blows air out his nostrils like a raging bull, not happy about this stealth idea, but he trusts his friend's advice.

"Fine," Luffy says, "at night we bust in and send those jerks flying."

The crew all nod in agreement.

***


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

The Dragon God's Appetite

The bird-human, Xuan Wu, finally arrives at the palace with Nami in toe. He enters through an open window and drops Nami in front of a throne.

"Watch it bird-boy!" Nami scolds.

She gets back on her feet and notices the bird-human has changed back into his human form. His features are surprisingly similar to his bird form, only less feathery. He wears a thin sleeveless robe so that his wings don't tear his clothes when they form. It's worn loosely, exposing his thin girlish chest; Nami assumes due to some vain idea that people want to see his bare chest. Even though he can transform into a bird, he doesn't seem too imposing, Nami thinks she can probably take him with the Clima-tact. She subtlety reaches up her skirt to her thigh strap where the parts of the Clima-tact are kept, but stops when she notices they aren't alone. She hears loud, warm breathing coming from behind her. The breath is so warm it fills the room like an industrial heater. Nami nervously turns around, a look of possible terror on her face. She faces the throne and finds the warm breathing coming from the curtains behind the throne.

"Welcome, foreign girl," a deep quaking voice says slowly, "I am the Dragon God Huang-long..."

Nami can see glowing yellow eyes piercing through the curtains. Nami is frozen in terror as a massive serpent head pokes out of the curtains. It's covered in rich azure green scales; they glisten in the light as if they are metallic. The dragon's mouth is filled with rows of large sharp teeth, like that of a crocodile, and it seems to have facial hair. Nami is too scared to really notice the dragon's grooming. The dragon blows hot air out it's nostrils, it blows across Nami like a dessert storm.

The dragon continues, "I have selected you girl for the honor of serving my empire by serving my representative here in the mortal world. Thus the mighty Dragon God has spoken..."

The dragon pulls back into the curtains and the heat and pressure let's up. Nami doesn't know what to think, was that really a God? It was a dragon that's for sure, but the last "God" they met was nothing but a Devil Fruit user with delusions of grandeur. Nami straightens her thoughts, God or not, she can't let her self be confined by these people. Nami looks back to the bird-man, Xuan Wu, she notices that he's unaffected by the dragon's presence. Is he just used to it by now, or does he know there's nothing to be afraid of? A new presence enters the room from behind Nami. She turns back to the throne to find a creepy looking middle-aged man standing there; it's the Vice-roy, Qing long. He smiles a slimy, self satisfied smile as he strokes his beard.

"Good job Wu." Long says as he walks over to Nami, "My, my, my...you foreign girls are quite different aren't you?" He looks down at the Neko-Style imprint on Nami's shirt, his nostrils flaring, " I must say what you barbarians lack in civility, you make up for in 'vivaciousness'."

Nami's expression turns lethargic, knowing exactly what he's referring to.

"Don't tell me you kidnapped me just because of my endowment?" Nami sighs.

Long takes a superior tone, "Now listen foreign girl, it is a great honor to be chosen by the Dragon God. Only the finest maidens in the empire are chosen to serve."

"Sorry if I'm not thrilled about being abducted by some dirty old man." Nami says harshly.

Long's expression turns to displeasure.

"Listen up creep," Nami continues, "don't think for a second you're gonna get away with this. As soon as my friends get here, they're gonna kick your butt back to the Calm Belt. So I suggest you just let me go now and save your self a beating."

Long has never had a woman or a commoner talk down to him, his expression turns to raw fury. He grabs her by the cheeks and corrects her statement.

"Listen here you little foreign tart!" Long spits out, "No one, especially a woman, talks that way to me. I am the highest authority there is in this country. I command the Dragon God him self as you have already seen, so you will learn to show me respect!"

He let's go of Nami, throwing her face to the side. Nami turns back to look at him, but it's not a look of fear, or regret. It's a look of disdain, a look that pierces Long's superior facade. Long can't argue with her at this time, Nami's personal strength of will can't be broken by his hollow words. Long calls in his special palace guards.

"Guardsmen!" He commands, "Take this uncivilized wench to the royal concubine chamber. Her education on proper edict will begin first thing tomorrow."

The guards grab Nami by the arms and take her away. Nami decides now isn't the best time to make her escape, perhaps this chamber will be a better opportunity. Long is utterly furious how that foreign woman made a fool of him in front of his men. An uproarious laugh comes from the seat just to the right of the throne.

"Rahahaha!" That barbarian girl is fiery as she looks, Long!" A deep masculine voice boasts from the beanbag-like seat, "Maybe you should let me have her instead, I like a good fight, Rahahaha!"

Long turns around to look at the large man that just slipped in, he glares at him with the look of a spoiled child on a tantrum.

Even though he's one of Long's trusted inner circle of warriors, Long doesn't tolerate jokes at his expense.

"Oh shut up Bai hu!" Long yells in a whinny voice, "You only care about fighting, anyway. What do you know about women?"

The man, Bai hu, is a huge man, at least 6' 5" and all muscle. He has a broad face with a sharp toothy grin, a small square nose and small sharp eyes. His hair is tied back into a small pony tail and he has long mutton chops that hang off his face. He wears the armor of the royal guard, but only the outside stomach plate, nothing underneath but his exposed chest. Like Wu he wears pants, shin guards and a red sash holding it all together. Hu sits cross-legged, drinking a bottle of sake.

"I know that her breasts aren't the only thing that's different about her." Hu answers, "She's not some scared little house wife like all the other girls here, she'll most likely stab you in the back someday if you take her lightly..."

Long scoffs at the idea of a woman killing him, the man who captured an entire kingdom in one day. He sits on his throne, pouting, and yells for food and drink so he can drown his away embarrassment.

***

The crew waits impatiently for the sun to set, unable to fall into their normal habits. Usopp still worriers about the ship though, the mast was broken off for the third time since they entered the Grand Line. Held in place with a sheet of metal, it just gets worse every time it breaks. When they find a shipwright, they may have to replace the mast all together.

Robin sits quietly reading the book the old man gave her, in hopes of finding a method of breaching the wall without destroying it. She occasionally looks out to see if the sun is any further down. Sanji goes through a whole pack of smokes, rocking his leg up and down as he puffs away. Chopper sits on deck, wanting to say or do something funny or inspiring, but keeps coming up empty. He feels like he didn't do anything during the battle back at the wall, and wants to at least make everyone feel better, after all that's what doctors do, make people feel better. Zoro is calm and composed as always. Even though this time would be better spent sleeping or training, Zoro prepares in a different way. Steeling his nerves for the unknown battle ahead. Luffy sits in his usual spot, silent, looking out at the speck on the horizon. People who don't know Luffy often question why he's the captain, but his crew mates know why. He can't cook, or navigate, or heal wounds, or use swords, or read hieroglyphics or even lie. But, when things go wrong, when anyone needs help for any reason, he can do something, and his crew knows he always will. That is why he's the captain, and right now he knows what he, what they, have to do.

The sun sets and the crew is about fed up with waiting, but it seems they will have to wait a little bit more, as a surprise guest calls out from the water below.

"Hey! Foreigners!" the voice yells.

The crew head to the starboard side of the ship to see who's calling out; it appears to be a palace guard in a small paddle boat.

"Greetings, I know you have little reason to trust me, but please hear me out. I want to help you rescue your friend." the guardsman says.

Everyone gets a look of surprise on their faces, but with six against one, what do they have to lose by hearing him out. They let him up on deck and the young soldier bows and introduces him self.

"Thank you for hearing me out. My name is Jing-sheng, I'm a royal palace guard to our former emperor."

The young man wore the same stomach armor plate and gray robe as all the other palace guards. He had matching gauntlets and shin guards as well and wore a sword on his back. He seemed like a normal, athletic young man, a simple honest face, short black hair, combed down, no real distinguishing features. It was as if he was a literal "average man".

"For as long as our country has been, we have been ruled by the emperor, those born of the bloodline that originally summoned the Divine Dragon God that made our home. Our last emperor was Yao-liang, he was a fair and noble lord, loved by all the citizens. But two years ago something unforeseen happened; the Dragon God Huang-long returned and started making strange demands."

Everyone seemed surprised to hear that the Dragon God was real, or so it seemed.

Usopp rubs his chin, "So that story about your island being made by this dragon are true?" he asks.

"So it would seem. To be honest, while the Divine Dragon is revered by my people, it's been generations since the island was formed so many just considered the dragon to be an old tradition, not a real being. But faced with this very real dragon, what else could we do but obey? It demanded the emperor be banished to the farmland to toil in the fields, and that the shifty Vice-roy be put in charge in his place."

"Who is this Vice-roy?" Robin asks.

"Qing long, he was the emperor's top aid, and adviser who had certain legal authority in the empire. He's a shifty, scheming little man, who only cared about his place in the chain of power. He had been sent away on a trading voyage with several members of the Elite Guard, right before he was swept into power. Many think he did something in that time to twist the Dragon God to his will."

The crew (except Luffy) all seem to be thinking the same thing.

"Sounds pretty obvious to me..." Usopp adds.

"Yeah, no doubt..." Sanji agrees.

"So..." Luffy buts in, "This Long guy, must have made friends with the dragon while he was gone."

Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji all hit Luffy over the head in Nami's place.

"Moron!" They all yell at Luffy.

Usopp corrects him, "It's pretty obvious he found some kind of Devil Fruit, but what kind of ability could it be?"

Robin gets a serious look, thinking it could be THAT kind of Devil Fruit, but doesn't want to think it's that bad till she can be certain.

Sheng clears his throat and continues, "Anyway, since he came into power, he's made many self satisfying proclamations, such as excessive tax hikes, seizing property for his personal use and assigning key positions to his Elite Guard. Worst of all is the 'sacrifices' he claims the Dragon God demands. He says the Dragon God wants payment for the splendor of our empire, and demands maidens be given to him to be consumed by the Dragon God."

The crew all have the same shocked reaction.

"What!?" Luffy yells, "They're gonna feed Nami to a Dragon?!"

"No way!!" Sanji adds, "No one is feeding my sweet Nami-san to some overgrown snake!"

Sheng holds up his hand to interject, as he has more, "I understand your fears, and at first I feared the same fate awaited our fare maidens, including...my betrothed, Mei-lien..." He pauses to cringe, then opens his eyes and continues with his explanation, "But as Long got overly comfortable, he became lax in guarding his secrets and I discovered the truth. The maidens weren't eaten or killed, but made into Long's personal concubines..."

"WHAAAAATTTT!!!" Sanji interrupts, burning with fiery rage, "He's gonna make Nami-san a concubine?! That's even worse than being eaten by a dragon!"

Usopp stands clear of Sanji, wondering how that's worse than being eaten. Sanji moves over to the port side railing and burns like an erupting volcano, shouting undecipherable ramblings. Sheng doesn't know what to think of that.

"...So anyway," Sheng continues, "the maidens are alive, and its clear Long is lying about the dragon's intentions. I have managed to gather a group of Royal Guards and soldiers like my self who are all loyal to Emperor Yao, but because of the power of the dragon we haven't made a move to rescue the maidens yet.

But when I saw your group nearly break down the great wall with just your fists, I knew that with your help we can stop Long and rescue the maidens."

He pauses and puts out his hand, "So, if I let you all inside the island, will you help me free the maidens? Remember, regardless of how, Long still has the Divine Dragon at his command as you've already seen..."

Luffy puts on his hat and smiles confidently, "You even need to ask?" he replies, "I don't care if he has a dragon god or whatever, I'll send that stupid dragon flying if I have to. No one messes with my friends!"

The crew all smile, knowing he was going to say that.

Zoro turns to Sheng, "Besides, Luffy already beat God once, so there shouldn't be a problem."

Sheng is confused by that statement, unaware of Luffy's fight with God Eneru up on Sky Island. Despite that, he knows he can count on this group of strange pirates to be true to their word.

"Alright then," Sheng says, "all of you get on my boat and we'll row to the secret entryway."

The crew all stuff them selves into Sheng's boat and begin the trip back to Huáng-lóng.

Nami is thrown into a large, heavily furnished room. The door she entered from slides down, turning back into a wall. She surveys the room, it's large and circular, containing several round beds, and several chairs and couches. It has doors leading to washrooms and a kitchen, but no windows. As Nami looks around she notices the room is already occupied by about a dozen young girls. Most are dressed in the silly "china dress" outfit, but others are dressed in formal robes. The girls are somewhat frightened by the new arrival, not just because of her obvious foreign appearance, but her strange casual clothes.

"Um, hi." Nami waves to girls in an attempt to break the ice, "I'm Nami, nice to meet you all."

The girls talk among them selves, occasionally looking over at Nami. She gets an annoyed expression on her face.

One of the girls approaches her and bows, "Greeting I'm Mei-lien, it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Nami."

Nami smiles and greets the young girl. She looks no older than Nami, if not a bit younger. Like all the girls there, she has long black hair, but hers is tied up into two buns high up on each side of her head. She has decorative hair pins in each bun and has flat un-parted bangs. She is one of the girls dressed in a robe, silky white with another gold robe underneath, and a gold silk sash holding it all up.

"So Mei," Nami asks, "I guess I don't have to ask what your all doing here, right?"

Mei gets a sad expression and nods, "I'm sorry Miss Nami, for you to visit out country and be forced into such a life..."

Nami smiles and crosses her arms, "Don't worry about it, I won't be here too long."

Nami pulls out the 4 parts of the Clima-tact and throws them together to form a long metal staff, "As soon as my friends start making some noise, we'll all be getting out of here."

***


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

Assault on the Dragon City

The small row boat reaches the wall undetected. Sheng puts his hands against the wall and begins knocking in certain places. He stops and a small slab of the wall slides down. It's only the size of a normal door, not the entire wall like before. Another Royal Guard is waiting inside to greet everyone.

"This is an emergency exit created to allow the emperor to escape if the island is ever attacked from within." Sheng explains.

They follow him inside and find it isn't a massively thick single wall, but 2 really thick walls with a dock in between.

"The wall you broke was one of the outer walls," Sheng states as the crew looks around the huge indoor dock, "Each of the eight walls houses either a dock like this, or a sentry lodging. Obviously, it's safer to enter at the dock, even though there are many loyalists within the army, Long still has many soldiers who blindly obey him."

The dock is as spacious as a large stadium, with overhead walkways stretching across it's entire length. The main fleet is lined up where the wall would open, allowing a quick release of the battleships in a naval battle.

The crew heads across the way to another normal sized door, where another loyalist stands guard. The door opens up to another hallway, but this one leads through the inner wall. They finally exit the confinement of the walls and enter the country of Huáng-lóng. The crew looks on is wonder as they enter a vast green rural farmland. Off in the distance they can see the great stone city of Jing-long, it's as if another smaller octagon wall was erected and a maze of large stone buildings was stacked on top of it. In the center of the city a single stone tower pierces the sky, standing alone even among the other tall buildings.

Sheng points to the tower, "That tall building in the center is the royal palace," he explains, "that is where your friend and the other maidens are being kept, as well as where Long and his three Elite Captains are. We'll meet up with the rest of the loyalist forces and storm the pal..."

He's cut off by Luffy who starts yelling, "Okay you stupid dragon! I'm gonna kick your ass!" Luffy yells with his hands in the air.

With that said he takes off running towards the city.

"Wait for me damn it!" Sanji jets off after him, "I'm the one who's gonna rescue Nami-san!"

Zoro runs off after them and Chopper chases after Zoro, knowing that if someone doesn't lead him he'll just end up on the other side of the island.

Usopp smiles at Sheng, "Thanks for the help Sheng. Do what you have to do, we'll do our own thing." Usopp gives him a thumbs up.

Sheng looks down and sees Usopp's legs shaking like a naked polar bear. Robin smiles and drags Usopp off with her towards the city.

"Let's go Long nose-kun." she says.

Sheng is amazed by their courage and commitment to their friend, and feels he has to do his part to help them. He pulls a small bamboo whistle out and blows on it, but it makes no sound. A moment passes and a "Hai!" is heard in the distance, approaching Sheng's location. A black and white ball falls from the sky and lands right in front of him, it bounces up a few feet and then changes shape. Another ball pops out the top and two smaller balls on top of that one pop out. Two round arms pop out the sides and two round legs pop out the bottom. The furry ball-thing poses with both arms outstretched and one leg in the air. "Hai." it says in a low somewhat dimwitted voice. It seems to be some kind of Panda, or maybe a just a furry sumo wrestler, it is wearing nothing but a red loin cloth after all. It also wears a white headband with a red circle in the center, is it studying for a test? The panda thing's eyes seemed to be closed or are just really thin, and it doesn't have mouth? An odd creature indeed, it takes a relaxed stance and starts scratching its belly. Sheng smiles at the Panda-sumo.

"Sorry to call you here on such short notice Xun-xun," Sheng says to the Panda, "but I need your skills to help out our new outlander friends."

Sheng pulls out a scroll of paper and writes a message on in quickly, then rolls it back up and hands it to Xun-xun.

"Take this message to the loyalists in the city, it will tell them to look out for those foreign pirates and aid them in any way they can. Get it to them as fast as your legs will carry you my friend."

The Panda stuffs the scroll into his loin cloth and salutes Sheng, "Hai." he says, and then disappears like a gust of wind. Despite appearances the portly panda moves faster than a cheetah. He dashes off towards the city, a black and white blur in the night.

***

Qing long is eating an extravagant meal with his three subordinates in the dinning hall, Bai hu the captain of imperial cavalry, Xuan Wu the captain of the imperial artillery, and Zhu Que the captain of the imperial guard. They all eat and drink like kings, growing fat off of the undeserved spoils of the citizens. They laugh and pine away about their own "greatness".

"So, Long?" Hu starts in, "You think those barbarians will come back like that little spit fire said?"

Long scoffs, "Even if they survived that tidal wave, they can't breech the wall, no one can..."

Wu swirls his wine around in its glass and counters smugly, "But what about that incident 22 years ago, when that outlander pirate broke in? They're still not even sure how he got in, the wall was undamaged. Yet he and his men got inside and even visited the palace."

Long chews a piece roast beef while it still hangs out his mouth, staring at Wu with skepticism.

"That's just an old wives tale," Long replies, "That's why they never explained how it happened, because it's not possible, unless you can fly. Pure nonsense."

Wu smiles, "Wives tale huh? Just like the Divine Dragon?"

"Rahahaha!" Hu laughs out, and continues eating like a wild beast.

Que says nothing, as always, he just continues eating. Long cringes and strokes his beard, as he often does.

"I swear," Long says, "why do I even bother having dinner with you animals?"

"Chichichi." Wu snickers, "And yet the one who's the biggest slob is the one who ISN'T an animal."

They all look at Que, who still hasn't stopped eating, not even to defend him self. He's an odd one for sure, with a stout round face and broad round shoulders. He has tiny squinty eyes and a small 'V' for a nose. If you were to see him from just the shoulders up, he would appear to be quite fat, and yet...

Hu stops eating, his attention drawn to the front of the room.

He sighs, "Hey, Long, it seems your 'master ninja' is back."

Hu speaks with obvious sarcasm for obvious reasons. Obvious to all but Long and the "master ninja".

"What?!" Long looks around, "Where? I don't see anyone..."

As if on cue, a man who has been standing at the front of the room for some time, drops a sheet colored like the wall, and "reveals" him self.

"Behold!" he announces, "I, the great ninja Tetsunosuke have snuck undetected, into this chamber my lord!"

All but Long sigh a heavy groan. Long lights up and claps as if seeing a magic show for the first time.

"Oh Master Ninja, your stealth prowess never fails to impress me." Long compliments, oblivious to his own ignorance.

Tetsunosuke is adorned all in black, wearing a thin elastic mask over his entire head, with a opening from the bridge of his nose to the bottom of his forehead. He wears a headband with a metal plate sown on it; the plate has the character for IRON engraved on it. Instead of a black robe, he wears a black gi, with another black long sleeve shirt underneath.

He wears the loose pants that come with a gi, but has socks on that go up past his knees under them. To top off this fashion don't, he's chosen to wrap a long leather belt around his collar as if it were a scarf. Why that is, is anyone's guess.

"So, what brings you here Master Ninja?" Long asks.

Tetsunosuke gets down on one knee and reports, "My lord, my recon troops around the island have spotted a very odd occurrence. They spotted six foreigners approaching the city as we speak."

Long's face turns gray, how could he, the great Qing long, master of the Dragon God, be so wrong?

"WHAT!?" Long shrieks.

Hu smiles a toothy grin, "Oh really? This couldn't be better, I haven't had a decent hunt since we went on that trading voyage."

"Hold on Hu," Long buts in, "Master Ninja, take the Stealth Corps out into the city and eliminate the barbarians at once,"

"Hey, Long!" Hu growls, "Don't let them have all the fun!"

Long smiles a devious grin, "Don't be so rash Hu, you Wu and Que can go and intercept the intruders, but only the ones that make it past our Master Ninja. After all, if they can't best him, what 'fun' would they be to the likes of you?"

Hu's smile returns, "Right, that's a good point. Okay, you heard him guys, let's go."

They leave their meal and head for the exit, Tetsunosuke bows then dashes off to fulfill his orders.

Hu turns to his comrades, "I call that green haired swordsman that helped crack the wall."

"Fine," Wu replies, "I'll take whoever is unlucky enough to stumble into my territory.

"I'll take the blonde guy." Que suddenly speaks.

"I have feeling this is gonna be a fun night." Hu boasts.

***

Nami rests her ear against the wall and starts tapping the wall, when she reaches the door-wall the sound becomes softer, like it's made of wood and not stone. Nami smiles because she was right.

The door-wall isn't stone because if it was the room would be air tight and they would all suffocate. So the wall is just wood painted to match the others. One of her Clima-tact moves should be able to break it.

"_Now the Typhoon Tempo uses the air pressure caused by the heat bubbles and the cool bubble colliding to propel the boomerang_ _piece."_ Nami thinks to her self, _"So if I can contain that same pressure, I can increase the power of one of Usopp's stupid party moves."_

Nami takes the heat and cool pieces of the rod and begins spinning them to pop out the bubbles. She stops and sticks her thumbs in the end of each piece before attaching them to the other two pieces. It forms an upside down 'Y' shape, with the long part pointed at the door.

"Okay," Nami says, "The weather is thunder." Nami braces her self, "Thunder Tempo!"

She activates the attack, and the extra air pressure fires the boxing glove out with the force of a magnum revolver. It knocks Nami back onto her butt and busts the door-wall clean off.

"Owe..." Nami gets up rubbing her rear and then turns to the girls and smiles, "Alright ladies, it's time to go!"

Nami reconfigures the Clima-tact back into a a staff and tries to lead the girls out, but they don't budge.

"What are you waiting for, a handsome prince? Let's go." Nami commands.

One of the girls steps forward, "But...even if we leave, the Dragon God will punish us."

Nami rubs her forehead in annoyance.

"I don't believe this, geez. You really think this dragon is God? Why would God have you serve some creepy old guy? Besides my friends should be here by now, so who cares what that dragon wants. Pirates don't take orders from anyone, not even Gods. That's what being a pirate is about, freedom." Nami turns and rests her staff on her shoulder, "Now I'm getting out of here. Who's with me?"

The girls all look at each other, but Mei is the only one to step forward.

With a look of determination she answers, "Let's go Miss Nami."

They look back at the other girls and they all raise their fists in the air, "Yeah!" They all cheer, and then follow Nami out into the hall. There is a group of guards waiting for them.

"Crap we wasted to much time on that pep rally," Nami comments.

She takes one piece of the Clima-tact and attaches it to the other end making a cross shape configuration. She swings and launches the boomerang cross at the guards.

"Typhoon Tempo!" Nami shouts.

The air pressure powered boomerang knocks all the guards down and then returns to the top of the staff.

Nami turns to the girls, "Go the other way!" She yells.

They all head down the hall, Nami following in the rear, then enter the stairwell where more guards are found on the stairs.

Nami takes to the front and throws the staff point first at one of the guards. It hits him in the face and he falls, knocking the other guards down the stairs in a domino effect.

"Let's go!" She orders.

They hurry down the stairs, trampling the fallen guards as they do. They make it to the mid level of the palace but find the path to the next stairwell blocked by more guards. Nami holds her staff in a defensive position, trying to think of a plan to get out of this situation. Or she would have if the guards weren't being attacked by other guards. Nami is surprised and confused, but not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth. The "good" guards take out all of the other guards and then head over to Nami's group. The apparent leader of the group addresses Nami.

"You must be Nami, right?" The guard says.

"Huh?" Nami is even more confused, "You know me?"

"I'm Ji-kong, one of the imperial loyalist. Your friends are here on the island helping our leader raid the city. Thanks to the confusion they caused, the Elite Guard and the Stealth Corps are all away from the palace, allowing us to enter."

Nami lights up, "Luffy and the others are here?" Kong nods. "Alright!" Nami smiles and hugs the stranger, who blushes a bright red.

"My, pleasure ma'am..." Kong sputters out.

"Well, take care of them, I'm going to find my friends."

Nami starts to dart off, but Mei stops her. Mei blushes a bit and bows.

"Thank you Miss Nami, for everything." Mei says sincerely.

Nami smiles sweetly and pats Mei's head, "Don't worry about it Mei." she says.

"But..."

Nami stops her, "If you really want to re-pay me though," Nami holds up her hand, making the universal sign for money, a cat like expression on her face, "I take cash and treasure."

She grasps her rod in both hands and heads further down to meet up with her crew mates.

***


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

Pirate Nico Robin VS Master Ninja Tetsunosuke

Luffy charges up the street towards the palace, he doesn't even stop while fighting the soldiers.

"Gomu Gomu no," Luffy yells, "Gatling Gun!"

He rapidly punches a dozen soldiers with a flurry of fists. Luffy passes them before they even finish falling.

Sanji is right behind Luffy, scolding him, "Damn it Luffy, save some of them for the rest of us!"

Usopp, struggling to keep up with Sanji, disagrees, "Hey, don't go out of your way on our account Luffy. Take as many as you like." Usopp sputters out.

Robin is keeping a good pace behind Usopp, with Chopper in the rear, who seems to be looking around feverishly.

"On no!" Chopper cries.

The group (except Luffy) all stop where they are, which seems to be some kind of city square.

Robin looks down at Chopper, "What's wrong Mr. Doctor?" She asks.

"It's Zoro, he's missing!" Chopper explains.

They all know what this means, Zoro has no sense of direction, if left alone he'll get lost without fail.

"I took my eyes off him for a second and he disappeared."

Off to the east of their location, Zoro finds him self at a dead end and alone. He holds his hand to chin and grimaces, "Did those guys get them selves lost?" He thinks out loud, "Now where is that palace again..?"

Back at the square, Sanji isn't surprised or sympathetic, "Don't worry about him Chopper," he adds, "that stupid swordsman always manages to get him self to the right place somehow."

Chopper shakes his head, "No, this city is like a maze, and all the buildings look alike, Zoro could starve to death before he stumbles in the right direction."

Chopper is already in his full reindeer form so he begins sniffing around and turns to the east. "I'm gonna go look for him and guide him to the palace..." Chopper says as he runs off, following Zoro's scent.

Sanji turns back towards the palace and notices he can't see Luffy at all now.

"Crap! Now we've lost Luffy too!" Sanji yells, "I wanted to be the one to rescue Nami-san..."

Robin looks around the square and notices a large out of place vase has shown up behind them.

Usopp turns to Robin, "Something wrong Robin?" he asks.

"Hm? No, it's nothing..." Robin replies. She turns to them and smiles lightly, "Why don't you two go on ahead, I need to take care of something."

Sanji stops in his tracks, "But Robin-chan, you should stay close to me for protection." he adds.

"But don't you need to rescue Miss Navigator?" Robin points out.

Sanji goes back into rescue mode, "Your right. I'm coming Nami-swan!" Sanji runs off, hands waving in the air. He turns back and points at Usopp, "Usopp, protect Robin-chan with your life!"

Usopp has a gap jawed expression, "What?! You're supposed to be protecting me!" he cries, chasing after Sanji.

Robin looks out the side of her eyes and addresses the large vase, "You can come out now, Mr. Ninja." she states playfully.

The ninja lifts the obvious hiding place above his head, revealing him self with a look of surprise in his eyes.

"I'm impressed foreigner," he states, "how did you manage to see through my ninja illusion?"

Robin is amazed by his obliviousness and humors him, "I guess I must be immune..." she smiles playfully.

"I see..." the ninja takes her response at face value. He back flips unnecessarily several times till he's atop the second level shingles of the building behind him, then strikes a masked superhero pose, "Well, allow me to introduce my self! I am the greatest ninja in all of Huang-long, the mighty Tetsunosuke-sama!" he shouts so even the most hard of hearing could understand him.

Robin is less than thrilled by her opponent at this point, "Um, forgive me Mr. Ninja, but I don't think introducing your self at the top of your lungs is very stealthy." she points out.

Tetsunosuke shakes his head in disappointment, "Tsk tsk, that just shows how little you know of the art of Ninjutsu." he explains, "For example, you probably didn't know that ninja never fight alone..."

With that said, dozens of normal ninja appear out of the shadows.

Unlike with Tetsunosuke, Robin had no idea these men where here, hiding in the shadows.

Tetsunosuke looks down at Robin in a scolding manner, "Now then foreigner, the Vice-roy has ordered you and your companion's extermination," he states, "So I'm afraid it's time for you to die no..."

Robin crosses her arms into an 'X', her normal combat stance, "Ochenta Fleur (80 Flowers)," she says calmly. At that point, arms sprout from every one of the ninja and grab their legs, arms and chin and begin pulling them all backwards, "Clutch." Every ninja but Tetsunosuke is snapped backwards against their spines, knocking them all out instantly. Tetsunosuke is shocked, not by the fact that his entire division was just wiped out, but by her bizarre ability.

"What...did you just do?!" he yells, his eyes bulging out.

"Sorry Mr. Ninja," she replies, "But it seems you're the one who needs a lesson in Ninjutsu."

Robin creates the same number of arms on Tetsunosuke and Clutches him as well, but she's surprised when she doesn't hear a 'snap'.

"I see," he says from behind Robin, "You must be a Devil Fruit user, right?"

Robin turns to find him unharmed, but she's still holding someone on the second floor roof. She releases her hold, and not a man, but a balloon shaped like a man bends back up. It looks like five long clown balloons merged together to form the basic out line of a man, but it's a solid piece, no ties or twists. It's quite surreal to look at.

"A balloon?" she says in shock.

"As I said," Tetsunosuke replies, "you simply don't know enough about Ninjutsu."

Robin turns and tries again to submit him, but only Clutches another balloon clone.

"Over here foreigner." he taunts.

She turns back around, but again grabs a balloon clone. He smiles from above on the roofing to Robins left and snaps his fingers. That signals the last balloon to explode. Robin recalls the arms before they can be harmed, and shields her self from the blast.

Tetsunosuke looks down on Robin, confident in his victory, "I too have a Devil Fruit ability," he explains, "I ate the Pop Pop Fruit, so I'm a balloon-man. I can create balloons from various parts of my body and fill them with different kinds of air. My clones are filled with explosive air, but..." he holds out his right hand and a gray balloon starts blowing out of it. It takes the form of a balloon shuriken (which really just looks like two long balloons tied together in an 'X'), "I can fill these ones with sharp air."

He creates another shuriken and throws them both. Despite being balloons they throw like they are made of metal.

Robin dodges and the balloons both pierce the wall behind her. Robin glares with conviction and continues the fight.

She sprouts arms on his back and binds his hands behind him so he can't make any new balloons, sprouts an arm on both his shoulders and covers his mouth just in case he can make balloons from there, and sprouts four arms on the roof and binds both his legs so he can't escape. Tetsunosuke suddenly turns shinny, like rubber, and the real Tetsunosuke jumps out the chest of the now balloon clone as if it where a bubble.

"When I make clones," he explains, "my whole body creates the balloon, so there is no way to stop me from making them."

He smiles underneath his mask and darts off, running and jumping around the square like a monkey. As he moves, more balloon clones blow out of him, filling the area with exploding doubles.

Robin is surrounded but not overly concerned, "That's very impressive, but do you think I'm going to get near any of them, knowing what they do?" she asks the ninja.

"You forget, they may be filled with exploding air, but they are still clones, and my balloons take on the general function of their shape..." he replies.

As he says this the balloon army turns towards Robin and start to advance on her. Robin takes a defensive stance and sprouts arms from the ground, encircling her. Arms sprout out of those arms till they are stacked three high, forming a wave of arms.

"Sesenta Fleur (60 Flowers)," she says, "WAVE."

The arms wave in a clockwise motion around Robin, knocking all the balloons away.

"Not bad," Tetsunosuke comments, "but not good enough."

The clones all jump up high and dive in for a dog pile. They seem to have Robin pinned down. Tetsunosuke ignites them all at once, the explosion can be seen from the sky, rocking the area like a small tremor. Tetsunosuke is pleased with his victory, that is till the smoke clears. Instead of a charred corpse, he finds a dome of arms. Robin adjusted the wave to form a protective dome around her self before they landed on her. The arms all blow away like peddles in the wind and Robin gets back up, her arms badly hurt.

"I see," Tetsunosuke says, "your ability seems to have quite the drawback. Too bad foreigner, but it looks like this fight is over."

Tetsunosuke holds out his right hand and starts to blow a hammer balloon out, "How about we try some heavy air this time?" he gloats.

Robin isn't amused, but nor is she in despair, "Your right," she replies calmly, "this is over."

Robin sprouts an arm on both of his arms and pulls back his fingers. He yells out in pain.

"You see your ability has a rather large drawback too. You can't make a clone balloon when you're already making a balloon in your hand. Why else wouldn't you have just thrown shurikens at me amidst the swarm of clones?" Tetsunosuke cringes, he's lost and he knows it's not going to end well. Robin crosses her arms once more and arms sprout up from the ground below Tetsunosuke, covering him like vines. They pull him up higher than most of the buildings, save for the palace.

"Cien Fleur (100 Flowers)," Robin says, "Beanstalk."

The arms begin to retract; they pull Tetsunosuke face down and spin him as he plummets to the ground. The arms all blow away as he comes crashing down like a shooting star. The impact cracks the ground and the ninja lays flat on his face, his butt bent over in the air. Robin finally retracts the arms holding his hands and she turns a glance over to her fallen opponent.

"It's seems you weren't as well informed on Ninjutsu as you thought, Mr. Ninja." she says.

Robin grabs one of her singed arms, and makes a small groan of discomfort. It seems Chopper will have something to do later. Robin puts the thought out of her mind and continues onward to catch up with her crew mates.

***


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

Pirate Usopp VS Xuan Wu the Vermillion Phoenix

Usopp continues after Sanji, and the two eventually find them selves in a large park. It has lots of trees, a small pond with several small wooden bridges and a bamboo thicket. Usopp runs out of breath and falls down face first on one of the bridges.

"San-ji!" Usopp groans.

Sanji stops to set Usopp straight, "Listen Usopp, I don't have time for this. Nami-san's in peril and needs a gallant knight to save her..."

Sanji trails off and begins daydreaming about his victory. _He's dressed in a tacky prince charming outfit, with a large pillow like hat and a ruffled collar. He rides a white horse across a large open plain, carrying Princess Nami in his arms. She's dressed in a flowing white princess gown, not unlike a wedding dress. Sanji has sparkles in his eyes (er, eye) as he looks down at his fair maiden._

"_Oh Sanji-kun, thank you for saving me." Princess Nami says softly._

"_I was nothing my dear, anyone who would have done any less couldn't call him self a man." Sanji replies._

_He looks deeply into Princess Nami's longing gaze._

"_Sanji-kun..." she starts to move closer to Sanji._

"_Nami-san..." Sanji closes his eyes and..._

"...Sanji, you planning on kissing the air all day, or what?" Usopp says, snapping Sanji out of his romantic fantasy.

Sanji is hunched over, his arms around the air, lips puckered out, "Eh?" Sanji groans, looking around for his missing princess. He stands back up and clears his throat, "...Anyway, Nami-san is waiting for me. If your worried, go help Chopper find that lady hating swordsman."

Sanji dashes off, back in pursuit, leaving Usopp alone.

"WAIIIIIIT!!!" Usopp cries. Usopp rolls onto his back and stares out at the stars, "I guess I should have stuck with Zoro..." he mutters to him self.

***

Qing long is still enjoying his meal despite the loss of his comrades, or perhaps because of the loss of his comrades. He tips back a glass of sake, when one of the Stealth Corps units bursts in.

"Vice-roy sir!" the ninja announces.

Long spits out the sake like a fountain. He turns to his underling with a sour look.

"Sorry to interrupt you sir, but I have urgent news regarding the battle with the foreigners." the ninja reports on one knee.

Long smiles, assuming his victory is already at hand, "So, the foreigners are wiped out already? My, that was fast. Where is Master Ninja, so I may congratulate him properly?"

"I'm afraid that Tetsunosuke-sama was defeated sir, along with the rest of the Stealth Corps."

Long's expression turns from joy to disbelieve, "What!? The stupid barbarians beat the entire Stealth Corps?!"

The ninja hesitates to give him the worse news, "Actually sir, the Stealth Corps was defeated solely by the dark haired woman of the group."

Long's expression is even more gap jawed then before at this revelation, "They were beaten by a single foreign woman?!" Long pauses and makes a pondering expression, stroking his beard as he thinks to him self. "Wait, they had another woman in their group? What did she look like?" Long stops and thinks about the reality of the situation.

If she can beat the entire Stealth Corps, then she'd be an even bigger problem than the red haired girl. He dismisses the idea, returning his attention to the matter at hand. "Never mind, is that all?"

The ninja shakes his head, "No sir, it seems the other foreign girl has escaped, and taken the other concubines with her."

Long's expression has returned to utter shock, but he can't verbalize a "What?!".

The ninja continues the bad news, "It would also appear that she knocked out several palace guards and in now roaming freely thanks to a group of rouge palace guards who are helping the foreigners. They seem to be a group of Imperial loyalists..."

Long's expression turns from comedic shock to feral rage. He stands up, unable to tolerate further bad news.

"I see..." Long says coldly, "Those stupid barbarians, they could have had a civilized death at the hands of the Stealth Corps, but now they are just going to be devoured by the Elite Guard instead."

He begins to walk towards the exit, "I'm going to go summon the Dragon God, those traitors will learn first hand why you don't defy God."

***

Chopper continues sniffing about, hot on Zoro's trial. He finds him self at the dead end Zoro was at before.

"Zoro was here alright." Chopper muses to him self, "I need to hurry up and find him fast or we'll never catch up with Luffy."

Catching up is the least of Chopper's worries now, as a large shadow overtakes him. He turns back to see if it's Zoro, but what he smells isn't him, he smells the stench of blood. A giant man stands behind him, blocking the path back. He's carrying two large ornamented swords. They have wide curved blades, with no finger guards and gold tassels on the butt of the grip. A savage blood lust emanates from the large man as he approaches Chopper. He steps into the moonlight, its Bai Hu, the captain of the imperial cavalry.

He grins manically, "Well it seems I'VE found something," he growls, "I've found PREY."

***

Luffy finally arrives at the palace doors, which he doesn't stop to open, he just knocks them out of the way, tearing them off their hinges. He stops at the center of the main hall and looks around. He doesn't see anyone, so he takes a great deep breath and lets out a massive announcement, "NAMI! WE'RE HERE FOR YOU!!!"

Long can hear it all the way up on the top floor as he makes his way to the throne room. Luffy's announcement stops him in his tracks. Nami is on the second floor and smiles, "Luffy..." she says with glee. She continues down to join up with him.

***

"Well..." Usopp muses to him self, "I guess I should try to catch to Sanji..."

Before Usopp can finish his thought, an arrow shoots down right in front of his face.

"YAHHHH!!!" Usopp screams in typical Usopp fashion.

He quickly backs up, eyes bulged, mouth opened.

Just then, a somewhat effeminate voice speaks from above him, "Sorry outlander, but soon you won't be alive enough to catch up with your friend."

Usopp looks up and finds a thin girlish man sitting on an archway.

"Hey! Who the heck are you?" Usopp asks feverishly, "Wait, you seem familiar, have we met?"

The young man smiles and stands up, "How rude of me. Let me introduce my self; I am Xuan Wu, expert sniper and the captain of the imperial artillery."

Usopp is taken back a bit by his words, but it also wakes him up to the reality of the situation.

"A sniper?" He comments, "So you're the one who shot at me!"

Usopp picks up the arrow and points his index finger at Wu in an accusing manner.

"Nothing gets by you. Yes, you see my sniping skills are unmatched as no one can counter me from the distance I shoot from."

As if on cue, Wu throws his bow up in the air, then his body begins growing feathers. His legs change the direction they bent in and his feet turn to hand like talons. His hands disappear among the feathers as his arms become wings. Wu's nose, really kind of stays the same, it just gets longer and becomes his mouth as well. Now in his Bird-human form he catches the bow in his left talon.

Usopp has an epiphany, "You're that bird that took Nami!" Usopp states the obvious again, "You bastard, where is she?!"

"Chchichi," Wu chuckles as he begins to rise slowly, "I owe you no information, but if it will still your tongue, I heard the outlander girl had already managed to escape on her own and is currently running a foul the palace."

Usopp is temporarily relieved till he notices the bird-man has taken to the sky. Usopp pulls down his goggles to get a better look, but doesn't like what he sees.

Wu loads an arrow with his right talon and pulls back on the bow, he fires at the dead center of Usopp's head.

"EIIIII!!!" Usopp screams and starts running like a mad chicken (with its head cut off to boot). He manages to dodge the arrow and then the next one, and the next, the whole time screaming like a loon.

"What an insufferable coward," Wu says to him self, "yet he dodges all of my attacks. He can't just be lucky, is really able to read their path?"

Usopp catches this moment of hesitation in Wu's attacks and launches a pellet at him.

"Exploding Star!" Usopp yells.

The pellet makes it spot on to Wu's chest and explodes, but Wu is able to fly out of the way just before it connects.

"Impossible!" Wu shouts, "How could he counter me from this distance?"

Wu pulls out multiple arrows and starts a volley of attacks. Usopp runs and evades them all, despite his distracting screams for help. Wu is starting to get annoyed, he pulls out a fist full (talon full) of arrows and fires rapidly at Usopp.

"Arrow Rain!" he shouts.

Usopp continues to scream in comedic terror. The arrows all land, not one hitting Usopp, who lays contorted like a pretzel due to his erratic dodging.

Usopp jumps back up and readies a counter, firing a gas pellet at Wu. Wu easily evades but notices a second shot approaching.

"Certain Death Combo – Exploding Gas Star!" Usopp yells.

The second pellet blows, igniting the gas, which blows Wu down into a nose dive.

"Ha ha!" Usopp laughs, "Take that you overgrown parrot!"

Wu manages to catch his fall and flies right past Usopp.

"I'm a Heron for your information outlander." Wu quips back, "If you wanted to play with fire, then you should have said so earlier."

Wu pulls out an arrow who's tip is wrapped in a cloth pouch. There is a flint on his bow's neck and firing this arrow sparks the flint and ignites the pouch as it shoots off. Usopp dodges it, but it grazes his leg and catches his overalls on fire. Usopp starts yelling again and rolls on the ground. More arrows land right in front of him. He lets out a loud "YIIIII!!!" and rolls in the other direction.

"It's like trying to shoot a flea." Wu comments, "Enough of this foolishness."

Wu angles his body downward, making his shape as aerodynamic as possible. He holds his bow close to his torso, holding a dozen arrows back, ready to fire. He dives down, aiming for Usopp.

Usopp pats out his pants and looks up just in time to see Wu barreling towards him at sonic speed. Usopp lets out a loud "Mommy!" as he starts running back.

"Ultimate Technique – Mach 1 Bomber!" Wu yells as he dives right up to Usopp, releases his payload, and turns up to gain altitude. The force of the attack pushes Usopp back, making evasion almost impossible. Usopp takes an arrow in the shoulder and the leg.

"You might as well give up outlander," Wu taunts, "the speed and force of this attack makes it unbeatable, there is nothing your little toy can do to stop it."

Usopp bites down and removes the arrow in his shoulder. He looks up at Wu with a serious determination.

"Shut up you stupid parrot!" Usopp yells, "The Great Captain Usopp will never give up! But..." Usopp's tone changes, "If you do kill me, my army of 8,000 blood thirsty assassins will hunt you to the ends of the earth. So, I'll forgive you if you stop now, okay?"

Without hesitating Wu replies, "Liar."

Usopp has a stunned, gap face look, "How did he know?"

"Moron, you actually admitted it?!" Wu shoots back.

Wu rises for another dive, while Usopp looks through his bag for something to stop that attack. He finds just the thing; his Impact Dial. Wu dives again, this time with greater accuracy, but before the strike, Usopp holds out the Impact Dial. He gets pushed back by the force again, but the arrows just stop in place and fall to the ground.

Usopp smiles, "Thanks for the impact."

Wu is confused, "It looks like they all hit him," he says to him self, "yet it seems none of the arrows connected. Did he block them somehow? Let's see him block this one..."

Wu pulls out his fire arrows this time and prepares for a final dive. He rockets down, Usopp dead in his sights. Usopp also has his enemy dead in his sights, he loads the dial into his slingshot and fires. Without waiting, he fires a second shot, a normal pachinko round, right after it. Before Wu knows what happened, the dial reaches his face and the pachinko hit's the button on the back of the dial, activating it.

"Impact!" Usopp yells as the absorbed impact is shot directly at Wu, bringing his dive to a crashing halt.

"_What...was that...?" _Wu thinks before he passes out. He spirals back down to earth, crashing face down. Usopp's legs turn to jelly and he falls on his butt.

"I, I DID IT!" Usopp cheers, raising his slingshot in the air as he falls on his back.

***


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

Pirate Sanji VS Zhu Que the Black Tortoise

Luffy charges up the stairs from the main hall, unconcerned with any threat that might be waiting after his declaration of war, but he isn't expecting to meet his goal without any opposition at all.

"Luffy!" Nami smiles and runs down to meet.

"Nami," he says with a hint of relief, "you got out already? I was afraid that stupid Long guy already made you combine."

Nami gives Luffy a cynical look, "You mean concubine?" she corrects.

"Yeah that."

"Well anyway, your new soldier buddies have the place in chaos so it's the perfect chance to get out of here..."

Nami grabs Luffy's arm and starts down the stairs, but Luffy doesn't budge.

"Nope, can't go yet." Luffy says plainly, "I still have to beat up that stupid Long guy."

Nami doesn't get why Luffy would need to fight Qing long now, with her free and escape within grasp.

"What are you talking about? You don't need to fight that guy, what if he summons that dragon? I've seen it, it's a real dragon Luffy, you don't want to fight something like that. Let's just get everyone and go."

Luffy puts his hat back on and looks at Nami with a serious expression.

"No, I promised Sheng I'd send that Long guy flying. Sheng's the reason we got in here at all. If we left now that dragon or whatever would just go after him and his friends. There's no way I'm run away and abandon them."

Nami understands what Luffy is thinking now and let's go of him. It never fails to impress her how much he's willing to do for anyone who shows him a little kindness. She's reminded of what he did for her back on Cocoyashi or what they all did for Vivi. Nami almost feels stupid for wanting to leave so soon. Then something else hits her, something even more important. Nami's demeanor changes, becoming cheery and up beat.

"Alright Luffy, you go do what you got to do." Nami says cheerfully.

"Uh, okay..." Luffy is slightly confused.

Nami just realized, with Luffy fighting Long, the crew fighting the Elite Guard, and the Loyalists fighting the army, there is no one guarding the palace treasury.

"Are you okay Nami?" Luffy asks, still confused.

Nami turns to Luffy with a sparkling smile, and Beri signs in her eyes. She gives him a thumbs up, "Never better Captain."

"Okay...well I'll be going then."

Luffy continues up the stairs to find Long, while Nami continues down to find the imperial treasury.

***

Zoro is still lost, despite the fact that the palace is the tallest building in the city and directly in the center of the city.

"Damn it, " Zoro says scratching his head, I was sure it was this way..."

Zoro turns his attention elsewhere when he hears a voice loudly cry out in pain. It sounded like Chopper's voice, Zoro dashes off in the direction it came from. He arrives just in time to see Chopper, in his human form, fall to the ground bleeding.

"Chopper!" Zoro yells, running to his aid.

"Zo...ro..." Chopper returns to his normal, cute form and smiles at Zoro, having finally found him, "...I found..you."

Zoro maintains a calm, serious expression, "Yeah, thanks for looking for me." he says quietly.

Zoro looks up at the man that cut Chopper, a huge, grinning, blood thirsty man, his sword covered in Chopper's blood.

"Rahahaha!" Hu laughs, "It would seem I found you as well, barbarian swordsman."

Zoro ignores him and takes Chopper to a safe place in the ally behind them. He walks back to Hu slowly. Hu is somewhat put off by Zoro's attitude, his smile recedes into a scowl.

"What's the matter barbarian?" Hu asks, "I hurt your feelings?"

In a single motion Zoro dashes over to Hu, unsheathes his sword, Yubashiri, and slashes upward at him. Hu blocks the strike with his right sword, and brings his left down. Zoro pulls out Kitetsu III and blocks above his head. Hu's toothy grin returns.

"That's more like it barbarian!" Hu boasts, "Make me remember this hunt!"

Zoro changes his grip on Kitetsu, going from a reverse grip to normal grip and parries Hu's sword, then pushes Hu away with Yubashiri. Without pause the two charge each other and continue.

***

Sanji finds him self running through a market street. There are food carts and kiosks and buildings that have large signs on them that Sanji can't read. Seeing this makes Sanji think for a moment, why haven't they run into any towns' people yet? Sanji has passed dozens of unconscious soldiers, and Soldiers he had to kick down him self, and soldiers fighting the loyalist army, but no "innocent bystanders".

Are they all hiding indoors? Did the loyalists evacuate them? It just seem too convenient that there are no other people around besides those that are fighting. Sanji turns his attention behind him, and notices Usopp isn't chasing after him any more.

"Did Usopp give up or did he just come down with another case of can't-do-anything-useful-disease?" Sanji says to him self, "Well, I ain't putting off saving Nami-san just to go back for him, he's gonna have to wait for Zoro or Chopper to look out for him..."

Sanji turns back ahead just in time to avoid being crushed by a giant steel boulder. Sanji stops just before the metal ball lands, it cracks the ground as if it were just shot out of a cannon.

"What the hell!?" Sanji says as he jumps back, sliding to a stop.

The metal ball suddenly grows arms, legs and a head. It seems to be a man in a round suit of armor. The bolting design and extra plating on the back makes it look as if the giant man is a turtle.

He has short stubby arms and short stubby legs and wears a strange metal helmet that resembles an old Football helmet. The giant man opens his squinty eyes and looks down at Sanji, who has an odd look on his face.

"A turtle?" Sanji says, confused.

The armored giant smiles and greets Sanji, "I am Zhu Que, captain of the imperial guard. My steel armor is the greatest defense in all of Huáng-lóng, even greater than that of the outer wall. I hope you are prepared to die, little man."

Sanji isn't impressed. Calmly, he pulls a cigarette out and puts it in his mouth, then lights it. He takes a drag, then pulls it out and points it at Que, "Your talking to a top flight sea chief," he replies, "your threats are pointless. As far as I'm concerned, your just canned soup."

Sanji darts forward and makes a sweeping right kick to Que's gut, or so it seems. Sanji's foot slides right off, knocking him off balance. "What!?" Sanji mutters. Before he can regain his balance a palm strikes him in the face, sending him bouncing to the ground. Sanji rubs his mouth with the back of his hand to wipe off the blood.

"What just happened, I know I hit him?" Sanji says under his breath, "And how did he hit me with those little arms of his, is he an ability user?"

Que laughs and explains, "My armor is indeed modeled after the turtle, only MY shell is completely round. It's sleek round surface reflects all attacks, making for the perfect defense."

Sanji gets back on his feet, ready to prove him wrong, but Que doesn't give him a chance. He pulls his arms, legs and head inside the armor and starts rolling towards Sanji like a boulder. Sanji jumps to the side and evades the attack, but thanks to a well timed kick from Que, the armored ball bounces up and back towards Sanji. Sanji jumps up to avoid it and kicks down as he clears the top, but again he slips off and falls spinning to the ground. The armored ball lands and kicks behind it to stop then begins rolling back to get Sanji. Sanji isn't too happy about this, if he can't make contact, he can't win. Sanji hears some thing from behind, he quickly looks behind him. It almost looks like something just scampered behind a fruit cart. No time to think about it, the ball approaches. Sanji takes a hand stand and starts spinning too, he brings in his heel hard from the right, colliding with the metal ball.

"Concasse! (French: Crush, refers to the process of tenderizing meat by pounding it)" Sanji yells.

Sanji's attack doesn't have the crushing force it should, but it does derail Que, causing him to spin to his right, crashing into a kiosk and wall. Sanji maintains his balance this time and spins back to his feet. He turns to Que, but out of the corner of his eye sees a little girl peering out from behind the fruit cart further back.

Looks to be about seven or eight, dressed in a simple red robe and sash. Sanji waves his hand back at the girl, directing her to fall back in the other direction. The little girl points to the metal ball, which is now in the air, falling towards Sanji.

This time his arms pop out and he angles his left palm towards Sanji.

Sanji sees this as a chance to strike at his limbs, he pulls back to avoid the short blow then starts raising his left knee for a kick to the arm. To Sanji's surprise his evasion fails as Que's arm grows in length and strikes Sanji in the chest.

He falls on his butt and goes sliding into a clothing stand. Sanji hold his chest with one hand and grabs the ground with the other. He looks up at Que, who seems quite pleased with his cheap trick. His limbs are really normal size, but at first he only shows his lower limbs, making it seem as though his arms and legs are short. Que goes back inside and rolls at him again, Sanji gets back up and charges. The metal ball shoots its arm down and pushes up again. A stubby leg pops out, but Sanji isn't going to fall for that again, he dashes to the side this time, just behind the metal ball. Que pops his head out after the extended kick fails and turns to see Sanji sweeping his left leg up. Sanji hooks Que's neck with his foot and pulls his whole body down, "Reception!" Sanji yells as he slams Que's head into the ground.

Sanji scoffs at Que's stupid tricks, "Tricky turtle bastard, why don't you fight like a man? What are you a turtle or a Jack in the Box?"

Que gets back up, "Neither," he replies, "I am the invincible Zhu Que!"

He takes a left jab at Sanji, but Sanji just takes a quick dash backwards, then twists to his right turning all the way back and takes a sharp straight right kick to Que's upper arm.

"Epaule! (French: Shoulder, in cooking refers to shoulder meat)" Sanji shouts.

Que starts to spin back, his head falling towards Sanji, who's ready to strike. Before Sanji can attack, Que pulls in all his parts and rolls back. He stops, then begins to roll towards Sanji at top speed.

Sanji is prepared to jump or evade, but he'd rather counter, he looks around for something that can negate the armor's slickness. Instead he finds the little girl standing not too far behind him. She's crying, looking around for something or someone. Sanji gets a look of panic, if he evades the girl could get crushed.

"Hey, kid, what are you doing?! Get out of here now!" Sanji yells to her.

The girl seems too scared to move, she covers her head and closes her eyes. Sanji has no choice; he holds his hands out and stands his ground. The metal ball slams right into his body; Sanji coughs up some blood from the impact. Despite the force of the attack, Sanji doesn't move too far, and remains standing. Sanji is breathing heavily, as Que rolls back, Sanji slowly steps forward.

"You stupid turtle bastard," he says, "don't you have any respect for a lady?"

The little girl looks up at him and smiles, wiping away her tears. She manages to get up and runs into an open store, peeking out of the door to see what happens. Sanji is hurt, but still not ready to call it quits.

Que rolls backward, a bit slower than before Sanji notices, in fact he seems a bit wobbly as well. The metal ball begins rolling towards him again; Sanji walks forward a bit and stops when he notices the cracked ground where Que first landed. Right before the ball hits, Sanji kicks up the ground below, using the cracks as foothold. The ball gets knocked up into the air, with the uplifted ground below. Sanji takes a hard stance and kicks directly up with his right leg.

"Anti-Manners Kick Course!!!" Sanji yells.

The attack shatters the rock, which in turn adds friction to Que, allowing Sanji's foot to land perfectly on its target. The kick launches Que high into the air, spinning. He lands a bit behind Sanji, leaving another crater. Que staggers up, barely able to stand, let alone walk, yet it seems like he didn't take too much damage. Sanji walks over to him slowly, replacing the cigarette he lost after Que's first attack.

"If I had to guess," Sanji says, "I'd say your other fights don't last too long, am I right?" Sanji continues walking towards him casually, "All that spinning around, you can't tell me you don't get dizzy after a while..."

And he can't tell him, because he IS too dizzy, too dizzy to even notice Sanji approaching him. Sanji stops walking and starts running, he jumps into the air and lands foot first on Que's face.

"Mouton Shot! (cooking term that refers to cooked lamb meat)" Sanji yells.

His kick sends Que flying right back into his armor and then out the back of it. He bounces off the ground a few times till he crashes into a food stand. Sanji is surprised by what he sees. Que isn't fat, he's in fact really skinny, but his body is really long and disproportionate. It's as though he was a fat man who had his side fat cut off, leaving behind a awkward lanky man.

Sanji takes a drag of his cigarette, and blows out the smoke, "Soup, has no place arguing with the chief, just because it's in a can." he says to his fallen enemy.

Sanji loosen his tie and is about to continue on to the palace when he sees the little girl approach him. He smiles at her and she begins running towards him.

She hugs his waist tightly, "My hero!" she says, looking up at him with sparkling eyes.

"It's no big deal, really." Sanji replies, "Listen I got to go help my friends, so go find your mommy okay?"

"But, I need to give my hero his thank you kiss." She puckers up and sticks out her lips at Sanji.

"What!? Damn it, why is this the only time this ever happens!?"

Sanji squirms and struggles to get his new admirer off, but it seems like she's stuck to him. Once again Prince Sanji gets the raw end of the romantic deal.

***


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

Pirate Zoro VS Bai hu the White Tiger

Zoro and Hu exchange sword strikes, parrying each others swords, the sound clashing filling the air like thunder. Zoro changes his stance, hold his two swords parallel with his mouth sword.

"Santoryu - Gazami Dori! (Crab Seize)" Zoro says as he brings both swords out, clamping down like a crab. Hu manages to back off just in time to avoid being decapitated, but still takes several cuts to his chest and legs. Rather than upset, Hu is thrilled by almost dying. Hu spins back in towards Zoro, both swords parallel, and slashes diagonally upward. Zoro evades, but Hu brings the butt of the hilts of his swords down on Zoro. He blocks the attack with his fists, still holding tightly to his own blades. Hu pulls up and back, angling his blades horizontally, and comes back in for a pincer slice.

"Menghu Ai! (Fierce Tiger Fangs)" Hu roars.

Zoro ducks, and counters by jabbing his swords forward, knocking Hu's swords back. Hu matches Zoro by going in for a lunge, but Zoro changes stances, crossing his arms, blades pointed out at shoulder length, then charges.

"Ushi Bari! (Bull Horns)" Zoro says.

He tears past Hu with a piercing slash, cutting him across the arms and chest.

Hu lets out a gleeful belly laugh, "Rahahaha! Yes, this exactly what I was waiting for barbarian," Hu snickers, "a fight to the death between two skill swordsmen. Doesn't it make your blood boil barbarian?"

Zoro gives Hu an icy glare, "I'm really sick of you calling me that. If anyone's a barbarian here, it's you. I don't fight just for the sake of cutting people up you know."

Hu's grin goes from toothy, to fang-y, "Well, you know what they say," Hu muses, "a tiger can't change its stripes..."

Zoro looks confused and tries to correct Hu, "I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be a leopard."

Hu begins to nearly double in size, his body growing orange fur all over it. Hu's feet pop out of his socks, now hind feet with sharp claws. Hu's mutton chops become more of a mane and his nose turns black and shinny on the end. He whips his new tail around, excited about his new hunting partner.

"No," Hu growls, "I'm certain it's a tiger."

Zoro is surprised; he hasn't fought any Zoan types before.

"A Devil Fruit." Zoro mutters.

"Ah, you know about that stuff barbarian? It's the Cat Cat Fruit, Model Tiger. Now, let's continue the hunt."

Like a flash of light Hu lunges at Zoro, he tears past him before Zoro even knows he's been cut. Blood spurts from both of Zoro's shoulders, Zoro turns and barely blocks the next super speed attack. Hu lets loose a flurry of slashes with both swords, Zoro is unable to block all of them. He's slowly being nicked to death by this crazed tiger. Zoro changes stances and begins evading fluidly, parrying with his hand swords and cutting with his mouth sword.

"To Ro Nagashi. (Bleeding the Wolf)" Zoro says as he passes Hu, stopping behind him.

Though it seems the move was not effective, as only Zoro received injury.

"I'm not a wolf, I'm a tiger, remember?" Hu taunts.

"My mistake." Zoro counters.

He takes the hunter green bandana that is wrapped around his left arm and ties it on his head. The bandana creates shadows around Zoro's eyes, making him look even fiercer.

Zoro runs towards Hu then jumps high into the air. He pulls both hand swords vertically back behind his mouth sword, then pulls them forward and drives down on Hu with all three.

"Tora Gari! (Tiger Hunt)" Zoro yells.

Hu pulls out his swords in a cross defense and blocks all three swords.

"Nice try barbarian." Hu snickers.

While they don't cut, the force of the attack knocks Hu back. He recovers and charges Zoro, spinning his swords on their tassels behind him as he runs, stooped forward. He pulls both blades up diagonally, by the tassels still, across Zoro's chest. He then twists the grips and holds them normally as he pulls both blades straight down within a single moment.

"Xiao Ai! (Tiger Fang Roar)" Hu roars as his attack cuts through the buildings surrounding them and sends Zoro flying into the now crumbling walls. The wall shatters on Zoro's impact and crumbles on top of him.

Hu's blood lust subsides and he returns to a more rational mindset, "Damn, got too excited there. Didn't mean to kill him so soon."

Hu turns away from the wall and begins walking away.

"I wonder if that straw hat kid is still around here." He muses to him self.

A sound comes from the rubble, and a figure rises out of the mountain of fallen rock.

"You couldn't beat Luffy, you can't even beat me after all." Zoro smiles devilishly, despite his numerous bleeding wounds.

Hu smiles a crazy grin of adrenalin fueled joy. Zoro takes advantage of his enemy's lack of reason and charges, returning Wado to his mouth and his other swords to each hand. He lowers his head and crosses his arms, then slashes with all three in an instant.

"Oni Giri! (Demon Slash)" Zoro says.

Once again Hu blocks both hand swords and catches the third in his own mouth. He grins as he bites down on Wado, intending to break it in his mouth. Zoro changes the grip on Yubashiri, reversing it, and then twists hard with his whole body. It creates a deadly whirlwind of cutting air pressure.

"Tatsu maki! (Dragon Twister)" Zoro yells as Hu is launched into the air.

Hu lands with a heavy crash, "That, was impressive...barbarian..." Hu says with strained breath, "but, you won't beat the Dragon God with that 'twister'. "

Zoro turns and smiles a deadly grin, "I may have given this speech already, but I don't believe in God. So he's just another dragon to me. What's another beast to a master swordsman?"

Hu laughs a hardy laugh, as if it were some kind of inside joke, "Rahahaha! Indeed. I think it's time this hunt came to an end..."

Zoro sheaths two of his swords, "I was thinking the same thing." he says before returning Wado to his mouth.

Hu charges, both swords behind him, poised to strike at super speed. Zoro positions his sheathed swords, holding both handles with his arms crosses, his head low.

"Santoryu – Iai (Three Sword Style - Unsheathing Technique )" Zoro says calmly.

Within the single moment, no less than that, within the second before Hu's attack, Zoro unsheathes both swords, slashing out diagonally, charges past Hu as he slashes, cutting across once and diagonally twice, then stopping behind Hu and begins re-sheathing.

"Shin Oni Giri. (True Demon Slash)" Zoro says as he slowly re-sheaths his two swords. The air is thick the pressure of Zoro's attack, but fades as the blades slide further in their sheaths. Zoro finally snaps his swords back into their homes, when he does the three cuts made on Hu burst open all at once.

Hu's swords both break in half and the walls in front of Zoro cut and fall in the shape of his last attack. Hu falls into a pool of his blood, a look of contentment on his face. Zoro makes no cheesy one liner, he just looks back one last time then heads to where he left Chopper. He sheaths Wado then removes his bandana and tends to Chopper.

"You okay Chopper?" he asks quietly.

Chopper nods, forcing a smile, "I'm fine, but we can't worry about me right now, we have to rescue Nami. Without me to guide you, you'll never find your way to the palace."

Zoro groans, thinking his sense of direction isn't THAT bad. He picks Chopper up and follows his lead, or tries to anyway.

"No, go left!" Chopper says.

"Your left or mine?"

"They're the same left! Just go that way." Chopper points.

***

Sheng and his comrades who were stationed at the wall finally arrive in the city, but there is little to do. The Stealth Corps is defeated, the Elite Guard are all down for the count, and most of Long's soldiers are either defeated or engaged with the other loyalist troops. Sheng feels both happiness and shame, the day seems to be won, yet everyone else did all the work. As they approach the palace they see a group heading towards them. Reinforcements? Sheng and his men ready their weapons, but find it is in vain as the group is led by his friend Ji kong. Right behind Kong and his men are the newly freed maiden, including Sheng's long lost bride, Mei-lien.

"Mei!" Sheng drops his sword and runs over to her. The two embrace as one would

expect of those who had been torn from one another.

"Sheng..." Mei cries quietly in his arms.

Sheng also wants to cry, but due to macho reflexes does not, he just squeezes her tight, "Mei, I'm so happy your alright." They stop hugging and look at one another, as if for the first time, "So did Kong get you out? What happened? Did you see the Stawhats anywhere?" Sheng rambles on.

Mei shakes her head and explains, "No, Miss Nami broke us out and lead us to Kong here."

"Miss Nami? Oh yes, the Strawhat's companion. I see..." Once again Sheng is filled with joy and regret.

Mei is safe, yet it was the person they came to save who freed her, and not him. "Are you sure you're okay?" he pauses, "...I mean, after what happened, I..." Sheng expression turns sorrowful, "I cannot apologize enough to you my love, it was due to my weakness that this happened to you, to the whole country..."

Mei holds his hands up and shakes her head, "No, there was nothing any of us could do, lies or not, God or not, he was too powerful for us to resist him." She smiles softly to try and ease his heavy conscience.

"Still," Sheng adds, "I cannot help but feel a little ashamed, our whole country was taken from us and we did nothing but plot and sulk, yet those outlanders, the Strawhats, they fought without hesitation, when only a single one of them was taken. And even as we speak they are tearing down the wall that we could not breech."

Mei hugs him softly, then pushes back and looks up with a new found look of confidence, "Well then, let's stop talking and go help them take back our country." she says.

The loyalist soldiers all cheer and laugh and begin to continue on towards the palace.

"You and the other maidens should fall back to the farmland and hide till this is over." Sheng says.

"No way." Mei says, "We're gonna help, we all want to save this country too, right girls?"

The other girls all look at each other, then start looking else where, whistling nonchalantly.

Mei gets a sudden headache, "...Well anyway, I'm still coming. I want to help Miss Nami and her friends."

Sheng can't refuse her request, not after everything that's happened, "Alright Mei, but stay close to me."

Mei nods and the two head off with the other troops.

***


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER NINE**

Pirate Luffy VS Vice-roy Qing long

The Elite Guard have fallen, the Stealth Corps is decimated, and the army nearly overtaken, yet victory is still not absolute. One enemy remains, and only one person can put a stop to him. With a loud roar, Luffy busts down the doors to the throne room. Long turns with a deer-caught-in-headlights look on his face. He had just arrived in the throne room a moment ago and hadn't even had time to sit down.

He addresses Luffy with a smug tone, "Oh my, you got here sooner than I expected. I didn't even have time to sit in my seat and wait for you. That's how these things go right? The evil villain waits for the brave hero to arrive and they prattle on about their ideals and such?" Long smiles, thinking he's completely dissected Luffy's mindset, but Luffy is in no mood to give a good guy speech.

"Are you Long?" Luffy asks seriously.

"Eh," Long is somewhat put off by Luffy's ignorance, "I am Qing Long, Vice-roy of the empire and sole authority of this country. You should be ashamed of not even knowing who you are trying to defea..."

Long doesn't get to finish his sentence as Luffy dashes towards him without hesitation. Luffy flexes his right bicep and grabs onto it with his left hand, then lets loose a fierce stretching forward punch.

"Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" Luffy yells as it fires off straight for Long's face.

It connects and pushes Long back a foot or so. That's odd though, that punch can knock out a large sea monster, it should have sent that frail little man through the wall. That's when Luffy notices his punch didn't hit Long's face, Long caught it in his left hand. If you could say that's a hand, it's large and scaled, with sharp claws.

Long begins to chuckle quietly, "fehfehfeh, you seem to be misinformed about your enemy boy," Long snarls, "it's not the Vice-roy you need to defeat, but the Divine Dragon God."

Long doubles in size, his neck extending out, his arms and chest bulging with large muscles, his face extending out like a snake, and a tail popping out where was once none. His hair is reduced to a line along the center of his head and neck, but his long braided beard and mustache remained. He grows full rows of sharp fanged teeth and long claws on both his hands and his now exposed hind feet. He continues to to hold on to Luffy's out stretched hand.

"In case it isn't obvious by now," he boasts, "I don't actually command the Dragon God. I AM THE DRAGON GOD!"

Luffy isn't impressed, or dithered, "Your not God, your just a jerk who ate a Devil Fruit."

Luffy steps down hard with his right foot and kicks out his left, stretching it towards Long's stomach.

"Gomu Gomu no Stamp!" he yells.

It launches toward Long, but he catches this one in his right hand. Long grins, exposing his crocodile like teeth.

"You think you can beat God like that boy?" Long taunts.

He pulls on Luffy's limbs and throws him across the room into the wall behind him. Luffy rises from the rubble without injury, much to Long's surprise.

"That didn't hurt at all," Luffy says plainly, "cause I'm rubber."

Long holds up his right claw, "I see, so you have an ability as well. If I can't crush you, I'll just have to tear out your heart and eat it."

Long lunges at Luffy and takes a hard strike down with his claw, Luffy evades but Long's attack still cracks the floor on contact. Long strikes with his left claw, Luffy ducks. Another downward right claw, Luffy jumps back and pulls his arms up and back.

"Gomu Gomu no" Luffy says, "Gatling Gun!"

Luffy pounds away at Long's hard scaled body with a torrent of rapid, stretching punches. Long holds up his arms like a boxer in the corner, unfazed by the attack that can knock down an entire platoon of soldiers. Luffy stops and dashes forward again, launching another right punch.

"Gomu Gomu no," he says.

Long scoffs, ready to catch Luffy's punch, but instead of punching, Luffy grabs onto Long's raised left arm and recoils towards him. As soon as he reaches Long, he kicks straight up, landing square on Long's huge chin.

"Volcano!" Luffy yells as his foot stretches up, plowing Long right into the ceiling.

Luffy doesn't let up, he grabs Long's legs and pulls him down, slamming him into the floor. Now in the air from the previous move, Luffy holds onto Long and uses that to launch himself right at him. Luffy curls his legs up to his chest, aiming his feet at Long's back. He crashes feet first into Long, driving him into the floor, nearly shattering it. Luffy back flips out of the way before Long can recover. Long's tail pops up first and slams Luffy down. Long bursts back up with a roar and tears his right hand at Luffy's head, grabbing his entire head in his hand. He then slams Luffy's head into the floor to his right. Luffy is unhurt, but his head is stuck and he pushes with hands and feet to free him self. He pulls his head out with a sigh of relief, as that seems to happen a lot.

Long snarls, "You stupid uncivilized little brat, how dare you strike my face!"

Luffy looks up and smiles, "Yeah well eating my heart doesn't sound too civilized either."

Point taken, Long thinks, smiling devilishly, "Perhaps your right boy. How about this then?"

Long inhales deeply then roars out a giant burst of flames. Luffy takes the attack head on, and is hurt pretty badly. He struggles to get up, steam rising off him.

"Damn it..." Luffy cringes. Long prepares another blast, incinerating where Luffy was standing. Stretching his arms up to the hole in the ceiling, Luffy pulls him self out of the way. Before Long can counter, Luffy stretches his arms out and grabs Long's shoulders, then spins his body downward, coiling up his own shoulders. Luffy recoils over to Long, spinning his body upwards.

"Gomu Gomu no," Luffy says, "Buzz-saw!"

Luffy's spinning body propels his feet and head at Long's face, kicking and head butting him rapidly in the chin. Aware of the danger the fire breath represents, Luffy doesn't give Long a chance for a third shot. He pulls both arms far behind him, so far they go out the hole in the wall from Long's first attack.

"Gomu Gomu no," Luffy says.

Long tries to fire another blast, but it isn't fast enough as Luffy's arm race back to him, striking palm first into Long's stomach.

"BAZOOKA!"

Luffy's attack makes Long expel his blast upwards, destroying more of the ceiling. The force of Luffy's attack sends Long flying back through several walls and out into main stairwell, finally landing across the way a floor below. Luffy is breathing heavily from chaining so many attacks together, he looks out through the impact hole, wondering if Long is down for good. Unfortunately for Luffy, Long is still conscience, and fed up with playing around.

The whole building shakes as something much too big to be indoors appears. Zoan type Devil Fruits allow the user to take 3 forms; their normal form, their half-human half-animal form, and their full animal form. For most the half animal form is the strongest form, but for Long this isn't the case. A massive earth shaking roar tears across the entire island. Everyone, including those still fighting, stop at the sound of this frightening shriek. Sanji is right at the front door (or opening now thanks to Luffy), and even he stops in his tracks.

"What the hell was that?" he says to no one in particular.

Down in the basement level chambers, Nami is caring a large sack on her back, filled with various gold trinkets and jewelry. She too freezes at the sound of the roar. Nami slips out of money mode and begins to worry about Luffy, "Oh no, it sounds like Luffy is fighting that Dragon now." Nami thinks out loud.

She decides this is enough treasure and starts to evacuate. The other Strawhats all stop to look at the shaking palace where the mighty roar came from. Each of them thinking the same thing, that even Luffy might need help this time. They all continue on towards the palace just in case he does.

Back inside, a massive snake like face rises up towards Luffy, who can only look on in amazement. The face looks like a giant version of Long's human-dragon face. Same beard, same mustache, same dark hollow eyes.

It blows smoke out it's nostrils at Luffy, "It's time," Long growls in a deep, booming voice, "for you to learn that no one opposes GOD!!!"

Luffy has a serious, worried expression as a giant tail comes crashing down on him. It splits the top five floors of the palace in half, creating a giant mound of rubble on top of the "new" roof. The craftsmanship of the building is amazing, as such a collapse should have leveled the entire building. Long is now fully exposed, a giant, azure green serpent monster with two tiny, seemingly useless arms and two tiny unnecessary feet. Long looks out at those that remain to oppose him in the city and slithers down the rest of the palace like a massive snake. He sees Sanji on the ground next to the palace, still somewhat in shock, but chooses to ignore him for now. He sees the loyalist army, including one of his escaped concubines, and slithers over to them.

"SINNERS!" he roars, "I let you all live, at the small price of eternal servitude, and this is how you repay my mercy? Well, the mercy ends today, for all of you."

Long opens his jaws, as if ready to feast on a tray of hors d'oeuvres, and lowers in for a strike.

A voice comes from behind Long to correct him, "Don't you know you dragon bastard? That's not how you treat a lady!"

Sanji comes running up Long's back and leaps up high, he points one leg down and spins in place, then lands, one foot straight down, one straight up, right on top of Long's snout. "Brochette! (French shish kabob-type skewer that has many uses)" Sanji yells as his kick slams Long's face to the ground.

Long isn't pleased, he roars and shakes Sanji off of him. Sanji lands crouched on his feet, sliding back.

"TINY FOOL!" Long snaps back, "Just what do you think your doing? You have no hope of defeating me."

Sanji stands up straight and grabs onto the cigarette in his mouth and takes a drag. He pulls the cigarette out then blows a line of smoke and looks up at Long calmly.

"I know I can't," Sanji states smoothly, "But WE sure as hell can."

Surrounding Long is Zoro, sword in one hand, Chopper in the other. Both he and Chopper are now bandaged. Usopp is cowering behind some large rubble, but still showing his support. Robin, arms bandaged, is unshaken by the monster, her arms crossed in her usual stance. Sanji drops his cigarette and crushes it under foot.

"Now then, let's take this overgrown snake down!" Sanji shouts to the crew.

They respond without hesitation, "Right!"

***


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER TEN**

The Strawhat Pirates VS Qing long the Azure Dragon

The giant serpent tail whips about the city, toppling buildings, random citizens running from their now destroyed hiding places to the safety of the rural district. Zoro runs to avoid taking a hit, still carrying Chopper, who looks up at Zoro.

"Zoro," he says, "you can put me down now, I'm okay, really. I can fight too, please let me down."

Zoro looks at him, "You sure?" he asks. Chopper nods. "Alright..." Zoro drops Chopper off and continues running.

Chopper changes to his full reindeer form and darts off in the other direction, dodging Long's attacks. Usopp runs around like a madman, his eyes bulged out, as if his life depended on it, which for once it does. Robin steps in and makes five hands sprout below both of Long's eyes, then pull down his eyelids. Long begins thrashing about blindly, shaking his head back and forth. A massive tail comes down, about to crush Robin, but a kick from a dashing knight parries it. Sanji plants down hard, then leaps up, sweeping his right leg up diagonally.

"Veau Shot! (French: Veal)" Sanji yells as his foot knocks back Long's tail.

Sanji gets sent falling backwards, but Robin catches him in a net of arms stretched out between two buildings.

Sanji clenches his teeth, "Damn that dragon bastard's scales are as hard as steel." Sanji thinks out loud.

Robin and Sanji clear the area, dodging more of the dragon's attacks. Zoro sees that Long is looking away from him so he slides to a stop, holds one sword up above his head with his left hand holds onto his wrist with his right hand. He pulls down hard, releasing a blast of cutting air pressure.

"San-Ju Roku Pondo Ho! (36 Pound Cannon)" Zoro yells.

The blast hit's Long right on the side of the head, knocking him into a building, but doesn't seem to do any cutting damage. Zoro grimaces and pulls out another sword.

"I guess Luffy didn't beat up that Long guy fast enough if he managed to call this damn dragon." Zoro complains.

A young woman's voice comes from behind Zoro, correcting him, "No, Long doesn't actually have the power to summon the Dragon God."

Zoro looks behind him and sees a young woman in a white robe. He doesn't know it, but it's Nami's new friend, Mei-lien.

Mei continues, "Long IS the dragon."

Zoro gets a shocked look on his face, this means Long...

"A Devil Fruit?" Zoro says to the girl, who has no idea what that is.

Robin does though and explains, "It's a Mythical Beast Zoan type, to be exact."

Sanji stops to hear the explanation as well. "It's one of the rarest kinds of Devil Fruit, even more rare then Logia types. He has the power of a beast of legend."

Zoro turns back to Mei, "How do you know this Long guy is the dragon?"

Mei looks down at her hands as she talks, "I saw him transform once, I had just finished serving him some sake, when a new concubine was brought before him. I saw him sneak behind the throne, then the Dragon God appeared. When the Dragon was done, he reappeared from behind the throne. At first I thought it might be some kind of puppet, but after seeing the Dragon out in the open, it seemed clear it's not an illusion."

Sanji looks at the girl, "What an idiot, didn't he realize people would suspect him if acted so obvious?" He grabs Mei's hand and holds it gently, "Anyway, I'm Sanji, but you can call me Prince. Whom might you be young miss?"

Mei is somewhat confused, but then a hand lands on her shoulder to make sense of things. It's Sheng; he smiles and puts out Sanji's flames of love.

"This is my fiancée, Mei-lien. The girl I told you all about on your ship." Sheng says bluntly.

Sanji puts his hands into his pockets and starts to grumble to him self. The other loyalist soldiers are running about, detracting Long while the crew talks.

Usopp slides in, having barely escaped another tail strike, "I hate to break up the meeting," Usopp interrupts, "but maybe we should slay this dragon before we all sit down a chat!"

Sanji puts a new cigarette in his mouth, and then looks down at Usopp, "Oh Usopp, I see you managed to survive." Sanji says plainly.

"No thanks to you!" Usopp yells, baring his fangs.

Long finally notices them all gathered together and sends a tail crashing down towards them. They all scatter in groups of two.

Usopp fires a smoke bomb at Long's face, "Smoke Star!" he yells.

Long roars at the minor annoyance, just as Usopp planned. He reaches into his bag for some "special" ammunition and fires it directly into Long's mouth.

"Sure Kill – Tabasco Star!" Usopp yells, firing several rounds of hot sauce into Long's mouth.

Usopp smiles at his own marksmanship, but is disappointed by the result.

Long smacks his mouth up and down, tasting the sauce, "Mmmm, very refreshing, like ice water, only colder." he taunts.

Usopp's eyes bulge out and he let's out an "EIIIII!".

Long looks down at Usopp, "Oh I'm sorry, was that meant to be hot?" Allow me to educate you on the meaning of hot..."

Long sucks air in through his nostrils and the skin below his jaw inflates. He then roars out a giant burst of flames at Usopp. Usopp runs and screams for cover. The flames melt the area in question, making it clear they can't get hit with that and survive.

Chopper runs over to Robin, "Robin!" he yells, "I need you to tell everyone to keep him busy, I'm gonna look for his weak spot."

Robin nods and runs off to tell the others. Chopper returns to his cute form and pulls a yellow candy-like ball out of his bag. Chopper still feels bad about his past failures; not helping at the gate, needing Zoro to save him from Hu. Chopper is a man too, a pirate, and pirates don't let others fight their battles for them. Chopper knows he can fight too, for Nami, for Luffy, for everyone.

He tosses the ball into his mouth and catches it between his teeth, then bites down hard, shattering it.

"Rumble." Chopper says.

Chopper is already in Brain Point, so he doesn't have to change forms. He puts his little hooves together to make a diamond shaped hole to peer through.

"Scope" he says, activating Brain Point's ability.

A series of targeting sights flash by, searching for the dragon's weakness. Chopper has only three minutes before the effects of the Rumble Ball wear off, so he has to figure it out before then.

Robin takes her usual stance, and sprouts one hundred arms underneath Long's chin, then wraps them around his mouth, closing it shut. Long tries to open his mouth, shaking his head around the whole time. Robin struggles to hold her grip, due mostly to her injuries. Sanji and Zoro take their cues. Zoro runs towards Sanji, two swords in hand, and jumps on Sanji's outstretched leg.

"Armee de L'air Power Shoot! (Name of the French Air Force)" Sanji yells as he launches Zoro straight up with a kick. Zoro flies up towards Long's exposed chin.

"Nitoryu (Two Sword Style)" Zoro says, "Nigiri. (Double Slash)"

Zoro slashes up with his swords held parallel, slashing past Long's chin.

"Toro! (Climbing a Tower)"

Zoro angles his blades down as he starts coming down from Sanji's launch.

"Otoro! (Reply Climbing a Tower)"

Zoro brings both swords down on Long's nose as he falls. Zoro angles to his right and slashes both swords again, this time at Long's neck.

"Hirameki! (Flash)"

One final strike before landing, Zoro angles down diagonally to his right, slashing Long's body.

"Samon! (Sand Drawing)"

Zoro lands safely on his feet as all four attacks take collective effect. Robin can't hold him any further and lets the arms blow away. Long lets out a loud shriek, bursting out a blast of fire into the air. It seems like it hurt him, yet he's not bleeding. Long aims down and fires another blast. Zoro and Sanji retreat to opposite sides.

Zoro scoffs, disappointed by the lack of progress, "I can't believe that didn't hurt him at all."

Sanji grimaces and looks up at the monster, but notices something odd. There are a lot of dark clouds overhead even though it was clear all night. Just then a familiar voice yells from atop one of the buildings.

"Hey Zoro!"

Zoro looks up to find Nami standing on top of the building, holding her rod in one hand, and waving at him with the other.

"Nami?" Zoro seems surprised.

Sanji's eyes (um, eye) lights up, he had worried that something had happened to her when the palace got trashed, but he couldn't do anything due to Long's constant attacks.

"NAMI-SWAN!!!" he gushes out, waving his hands in the air.

"Zoro," Nami ignores Sanji and continues, "can you get one of your swords in the dragon's nose?!"

Zoro isn't sure what she's planning, but it's too chaotic to argue. Zoro sheaths Kitetsu and leaves Yubashiri out. Robin hears Nami as well and sprouts feet on the side of some buildings, sole side up, to create a stairway for Zoro. He runs up and jumps above Long. The dragon opens its mouth to eat Zoro, but Sanji interferes. Sanji charges full speed and dives, foot first, at Long's exposed stomach.

"Anti-manners Kick Course!" Sanji yells.

The attack knocks Long back, closing his mouth and lowering his head. Zoro holds his sword in both hands and stabs down as hard as he can.

Yubashiri just barley sticks into the tip of Long's nose. Long shakes his head and rocks Zoro off. Somehow (as always) Zoro survives the fall. Nami spins the thunder piece of her Clima-tact and tosses half a dozen thunder balls into the clouds.

"The weather report say to be on the look out for thunder clouds today." Nami says as the cloud begins to light up and rumble. Several bolts of lightning descend, drawn to the highest piece of metal it can find.

"Thunder bolt Tempo!" Nami yells, punching her fist out as the lighting zaps Long with a million volts of electricity.

Long is positioned straight up, mouth open, dazed from the shock. Zoro's sword falls out and Zoro recovers it, pissed off that Nami did that to his sword. Nami looks down at Chopper, who is right below her.

"Chopper, are you finished?" she asks. He nods, so Nami jumps down, "Chopper, I need a cushion."

Chopper changes to Defense Point and turns into a giant ball of fur. Nami lands safely and bounces off of him. Chopper changes to Jumping Point and explains Long's weakness.

"Most of his body is covered in hard metallic scales, and even his under belly is thick and powerful, but this is one spot that's very soft because it has to expand when he breathes fire. Right there..." Chopper points to the skin right below his jaw, "That skin there is the weakest part of his entire body, we need to attack him there."

With that Chopper darts off towards Long. He jumps high, but feels he won't reach so he asks for a little help.

"Nami, give me a boost." he asks.

Nami launches her Typhoon Tempo up at Chopper, who lands on the boomerang and uses it to make a second jump. Before reaching Long's chin, he changes to Arm Point, his biceps become massive, big as tree trunks. Chopper puts his hooves together on his right side, and then begins rapidly stomping into Long's windpipe with a barrage of hoof strikes. They leave a hoof imprint in Long's skin that resembles a cherry blossom.

"Kokutei Roseo Metel! (Carving Hoof Cherry Blossom Blizzard)" Chopper yells as he pummels Long's neck.

The attack sends the dragon falling back, almost outside the city. Chopper's time is up and he poofs back to his normal cute self, falling down to the ground. Nami catches him and congratulates him.

"Nice going Chopper." She says.

Chopper hides the top of his head underneath his hat, unable to take a compliment.

Zoro stomps over to Nami, holding his still warm sword.

"Damn it Nami, why didn't you tell me you were going to zap my sword?!" he yells with a shark faced expression.

"If I had, you wouldn't have done it." she replies plainly.

"Of course not!"

"Then why'd you ask if you knew already?"

Zoro shakes with fury, thinking how someday he's going to kill her, though he never really would. Sanji looks at the fallen dragon.

"Is he dead or what?" he asks, lighting the smoke he had in his mouth this whole time.

"I doubt it," Nami answers, "that's why we should find Luffy just in case."

Sanji looks over at Robin; now that Nami is safe he can focus on both them again. He notices her arms are bandaged.

"Robin-chan, what happened?" Sanji grasps her hands and holds them up.

Robin smiles politely and reassures Sanji, "It's nothing Mr. Cook, just a small burn."

Sanji's eye sparkles with concern, "You know a kiss will surely make it feel better..." Sanji says smoothly.

Nami pulls Sanji away by the ear, "Now isn't the time for that Sanji-kun," Nami scolds, "let's find Luffy before that dragon wakes..."

Before Nami can finish, Long bellows out a savage roar. They all turn and see Long slowly rise up, emitting an aura of blood lust. Long speaks slowly, due to the pain in his windpipe.

"YOU...ALL...DIE...NOW..." he growls out.

As much as hurts him to inhale, he's through putting up with these foreigners. He readies the largest burst of flames yet, enough to melt everything directly in front of him. He's about to open his mouth to finish this, but isn't able to as two stretchy rubber arms wrap around his mouth. Long can't stop the attack, and it goes off in his mouth, fire shooting out his nose and through some of his teeth. He jars back in pain, exposing the perfect target to the obvious owner of those arms. He pulls back as far as he can stretch, aiming his head at Long's windpipe.

He smiles and says, Gomu Gomu no....ROCKET!"

Luffy springs forward and unwraps his arms as he approaches his target. He head butts Long square in the center of the sweet spot, sending Luffy falling back a bit. The whole crew light up, knowing that now they can't lose.

"Luffy's back!" they all announce. Still in the air, Luffy pulls his arms back behind him, ready to finish off the falling beast.

"Gomu Gomu no," Luffy says as he snaps his arms back and jams them, palm first, into the same spot as before, "BAZOOKA!"

The attack sends Long sliding right out of the city and into the farmland. Luffy lands on his feet, crouched, hands on his knees. He stands up and puts his straw hat on as the others come over to greet him. Nami arrives first and Luffy smiles and says, "Hey." Nami ignores him and punches him in the head, shaking it like a gong.

"Where the hell have you been!?" Nami demands.

Luffy has a "what was that for" expression on his face and rubs his head, "I was stuck under all that rubble at the palace and couldn't get out." he explains, "But all the shaking and roaring made the floor break below me and I fell out." Luffy smiles a big wide grin, "shishishi, I guess I'm pretty lucky."

No one there thinks that getting buried in rubble and only getting out because of the giant rampaging dragon is lucky, but there's no point in correcting him.

Nami is secretly relieved that Luffy is okay, she though Long might have fried him. Nami turns to the others.

"Alright, even though it looks like it's over, he's sure to get back up, so we need a plan to stop him for good." Nami states, "You guys over there, soldier guys!" she points to Sheng and his men, who have just come out of hiding. "Get over here, we need your help!"

They gather around Luffy's group as Nami goes over the plan, "Okay, we need you guys to act as decoys and lead the dragon further away, towards the wall." Nami looks at Sanji, Robin and Usopp, "You three will help them so he doesn't go looking for us." She looks at Luffy, Zoro and Chopper, "The rest of us will launch the final attack from here." Nami has a strong, determined look and raises her fist to her chest, "Got it?" Everyone nods, "Then let's go!" Nami points towards Long.

The loyalists head out with Robin, Sanji and Usopp at the lead.

Sheng is a bit confused about everything and turns to Sanji, "Um, so who's the captain again?" he asks.

Sanji smiles and gives him a thumbs up, "Nami-san is the captain of my heart."

Robin laughs lightly, always amused by the crew's antics.

Long rises again, his throat soar, but his rage at its peek. He sees the soldiers approach and then pass him. He assumes they are retreating and pursues, he tries to inhale for a fire blast, but cannot do to his damaged windpipe.

Usopp stops ahead of Long and fires several pellets on the ground in front of the dragon, creating a puddle of slippery oil. Sanji comes from behind and performs a series of rapid kicks to Long's back, pushing him into the oil, and causing Long to lose his balance.

Now the he's disoriented and slippery, Robin steps in to send him further back.

She sprouts fifty legs along the base of the dragon, and starts sliding him further away from the city. The soldiers help by pushing on the dragon, making sliding even easier. Usopp notices a something strange approach from behind; it appears to be a panda in a sumo loin cloth.

"P-panda?" Usopp doesn't believe his eyes.

The panda darts towards the dragon's back, Usopp assumes to perform a hand slap. Instead the panda somehow pulls a full length spear out of his loin cloth and begins swinging wildly at the dragon.

"A spear!? What does that have to do with sumo wrestling?" Usopp asks him self, "And where did he pull that from? Is he a panda or a cat?"

The group continues to drive Long towards the wall. Back at the west side of the city, in the rural district, Luffy holds on with both arms to the roof of a small building, his arms coiled together like a spring. Zoro and Chopper pull Luffy back as far as they can. Nami brings over a familiar looking helmet she found and replaces Luffy's hat with it.

"Ready, Luffy?" she asks.

Luffy smiles seriously, "You bet."

Zoro and Chopper wait till the dragon is facing the city again, then let go of Luffy. He shoots off like a jet, put into a spin by the coiling.

As Luffy approaches Long's face, he shouts, "Gomu Gomu no.....ROCKET LAUNCHER!!!"

Luffy's armored head drills into Long's face with a loud crack, like explosive thunder. The impact slams Long's face against his neck, and folds up his whole body like an accordion. Luffy is pushed back by the impact, but the blow continues to push Long backwards. He tears through the inner wall, which trips him up and sends his head and neck into the air. It then falls backwards, crushing the outer wall and Long's head falls into the sea. Long being a Devil Fruit user, is a hammer when in the sea, and begins sinking, his long serpent-like body sliding into the water after him. When fully submerged he returns to his human form and continues to sink. Sunk or not, he could still hear everyone on the island cheering. Cheering for his defeat, cheering for the foreign pirates who beat him, and cheering for their long deserved freedom.

***


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

The Pirate Festival

The crew all gather where Luffy dropped, looking out at the giant breech in the wall. Luffy lies on the ground thoroughly satisfied with knocking Long into the sea. Sheng and the other loyalists join them to celebrate their victory.

"I can't believe that this day has come," Sheng says, "we owe you all a great dept..."

Usopp looks out at the near leveled city and ruptured wall and thinks otherwise.

"Free or not, that fight caused a lot of damage. I feel pretty bad about putting people out of their homes." Usopp says.

Nami whacks Usopp in the back of the head, jerking it down. Nami corrects him, "The dragon did the damage, so he should pay for it, not us."

Usopp rubs his new swollen head lump. Sheng smiles and puts his hands up to ease their concerns.

"Don't worry my friends, no one blames you for the damage. Homes can be rebuilt, all that matters is that everyone is alive and we can have a fresh start."

A voice from behind agrees with Sheng, "Truer words were never spoken commander."

They turn to find what appears to be a simple farmer, he wears a plain white shirt and pants, covered in dirt, and tops it all off by carrying a hoe with him. Sheng has a look of shock on his face and quickly drops to one knee, lowering his head.

"Emperor Yao, I'm not worthy of your praise my lord." Sheng replies humbly.

The emperor seemed to be in his thirties, long black hair, tied into a braid at the base of his neck. He seemed to keep his eyes closed a lot, either that or he has very thin eyes, either way he wears a sensible pair of glasses over them. He seemed like a simple, honest man, not the kind of person you'd expect to be ruling a country.

"As humble as always I see, please get up, I'm just a simple farmer now." Yao jokes. He turns to Luffy and his crew and greets them casually, "So you are the young adventurers that save my people," he grabs Luffy's hand and shakes it, "you all have my eternal gratitude. Please, if it isn't too much trouble, stay for a few days and then we will be able to properly thank you."

Luffy laughs, "shishishi, sure, we haven't eaten yet after all."

Yao returns the smile and turns to Sheng, "Please find the young heroes some suitable lodging. Now that my little vacation is over, I need to start organizing our rebuilding plans."

"Right away my lord." Sheng says.

Sanji looks out at the sea, thinking about Long's fate, and then turns to Yao, "Excuse me, sir? What do you plan on doing with that dragon bastard? I wouldn't blame you if you just let him drown."

Yao holds his chin, thinking, "That's a good question, I'd prefer he faced a more appropriate punishment, but how could we contain him even if we brought him up?"

Nami butts in, "As long as you keep him in the sea water he shouldn't be able to use his ability, so maybe you could fill a cell with seawater or something."

"Is that so?" Sheng says, "So there are lots of people out there with 'Devil Fruit' powers? It truly is an amazing world out there..."

Yao nods in agreement at Nami's suggestion, "Well then, it's settled, Commander, have Long brought up, resuscitated and then placed in a cell of sea water. Make sure he has some kind of flotation device too."

Sheng nods, "Right away, my lord." he turns to one of his men who runs off to handle the dirty work. "Anyway, let me take you all to some of our finest remaining lodgings."

Yao heads off into the city to get back to work, while Sheng leads the crew off to get some well deserved rest.

The following day, the soldiers continued clearing away debris and making preparation for the rebuilding effort. Most of Longs soldiers have sworn loyalty back to the emperor, but the elite guard and the master ninja, Tetsunosuke, were all imprisoned. It seems few were truly loyal to the fake Dragon God. Inside the somehow still standing palace, Robin sits comfortably on top of a mound of books that had fallen during the fight. It seems the imperial library survived the battle, and now Robin has made it her temporary home. Next to Robin, is an organized stack of books, most of which are regarding history and architecture. Robin is quietly reading when Sanji enters, bringing some tea and small sandwiches. They seem to be smoked salmon, with an avocado spread, with chopped tomatoes, and diced basil served on toasted sourdough bread. Sanji hands her a plate and a cup of tea.

"Are you sure it's safe to be in here Robin-chan?" Sanji asks.

Robin takes a sip of tea, "It should be fine, the rubble on the top floor has been cleared already thanks to Mr. Swordsman."

Sanji scowls, having been out done by Zoro, "That damn moss head, showing off like that."

Robin goes off into a tangent for a moment, "The architecture on this island is really quite amazing, for such a tall building to withstand the collapse of its top five floors like that. I found a fascinating book about when this palace was built..."

Sanji sits down and takes a drink of tea, "So did you find what you were looking for yet?" He asks.

Robin looks down into her cup of tea, a bit saddened by the lack of results on that subject.

"No, there doesn't seem to be mention of a ponyglyph being here or anything regarding the blank century. My guess is it has to do with the double edged sword of a closed society. While they were able to develop unaffected by the outside world, a result of this was that they gained absolutely no knowledge of the outside world. So whatever happened during the blank century, didn't effect this island."

Sanji feels bad for bringing it up, so he tries to make her feel better, "That's too bad, but I'm sure you'll find it soon Robin-chan." Sanji says smiling.

"It goes without say," she says softly, "but I was still able to learn about an ancient lost civilization that no other scholar in the world has ever documented, not even the great minds on Ohara..."

Robin's expression turns bittersweet at that though, she puts her tea down and grabs a small sandwich. She takes a bite and smiles at Sanji softly.

"It's very, Mr. Cook. Thank you." She says.

Sanji's heart light on fire, filling him with an unyielding happiness, "I'm glad you like it Robin-chan." he says smoothly, thinking his dreams have finally come true.

"So Mr. Cook," Robin changes the subject, "where's your new admirer?" she smiles devilishly.

Sanji freezes up, it seems he's been found out, "Damn it, I can't get a moment's peace with that girl following me ever where. This is the only place they won't let her enter." Sanji sighs, "Why couldn't she be ten years older?"

Robin laughs quietly at Sanji's so called troubles, then reaches for a new book.

Zoro was the most heavily wounded of the crew, yet here he is, out in the city hauling rubble. Pain has never really been an issue for Zoro, what really hurts is the idea that he received so many injuries due to his own weakness. If he had been stronger, he wouldn't have gotten injured. No time to waste healing, not when there is training to be done. He carries a large piece of rubble from the city to the lot where it's to be crushed and turned back into raw materials for the rebuilding effort. Most of the soldiers cart off small batches or have two or more soldiers carrying one piece, but Zoro single handily carries a giant block of stone debris over his shoulder. The site of this makes most of the workers feel insecure, but not Chopper, who is more concerned about his patient.

"Zoro, you shouldn't be moving around with those injuries, let alone performing any heavy lifting." Chopper scolds.

Zoro scoffs, "I wouldn't have gotten this injured if I had been strong enough. I was too weak, there's no time for relaxing, I have to get stronger."

Chopper continues to pester him the whole time he is training.

Inside the great wall, in one of the docking sections, Usopp helps the engineers fix their mast. They can't replace the mast, but they are able to re-secure it and patch up any holes cause by Long's attack. Usopp is happy the ship is okay, but he's heavily distracted by the mechanics of the wall's gate. He zips around examining the pulley systems it uses and the steam powered mechanism that raises the wall back up. While wandering about asking the engineers for tools and parts he can have, an unexpected guest arrives. All the engineers stop to bow, but Emperor Yao is quick to stop them, favoring a speedy recovery of their country over ceremony.

"Greetings, Sir Usopp." Yao says casually, "I see you're quite taken by our wall, even though its technology is so old."

"Old or not, it's still pretty incredible. I've seen some pretty weird stuff on the Grand Line, but how this giant wall manages to move is still pretty impressive. It's no wonder you've remained protected for so long."

Yao nods and rubs his chin, "Well, protect may be a bit of an exaggeration. In our long history, there have really been few outside invasion attempts. After everything that happened, it seems more like all this wall has done is made us vulnerable to our own ignorance about the world." he walks over to now open wall and looks out at the sea, "I'm thinking of ending our isolation, and turning the part of the wall that was destroyed by Long into an entrance. It would be more practical than rebuilding it. And maybe over time, converting all the gates into simple open passages."

Usopp puts on his backpack, which is now overflowing with tools and supplies and looks out at the sea with the emperor.

"Well that sounds like a good idea I suppose, but it never hurts to be cautious, the world out there is amazing and all, but it's still dangerous, take it from me. I'm a brave pirate captain, yet even I get scared out there some times." Usopp bends the truth a bit.

"That's a good point, Sir Usopp, but I was under the impression Sir Luffy was the captain of your group."

Usopp begins looking away slowly, "Yell, well the thing is, about that....Sorry, I just remembered, I have to get eat my snack soon or I'll die. So see ya later." And with that Usopp retreats, defeated by Yao's common sense.

In a small house in the rural district, Nami sits down for tea with Mei. The two talk about the crew's past adventures and how Mei met Sheng and other bits of idol conversation. Today Mei is wearing a more common looking robe, yet she seems cuter now then when she was dressed in the expensive clothing. Mei is just glowing, not just because of Long's defeat or because of being reunited with Sheng, but because she finally has her own girl friend. Mei feels like she can tell Nami anything, or ask anything.

"So Miss Nami, is Mr. Luffy your boyfriend?" She says as if it's a perfectly normal question.

Nami spits her tea out across the room, making a small indoor rainbow.

"Eh?" Nami asks with a dumbfounded look, "Were just good friends, Mei. Where would you get such an idea from anyway?"

Mei doesn't think it's odd at all, "Well Mr. Luffy was so willing to do anything to save you, that just seems like something you would only do for a lover."

Nami sighs, but smiles at Mei, she doesn't understand Luffy, it's just how he is. Love doesn't have to be involved to motivate him to help people. Nami decides to change the subject, hoping that no one overheard that conversation. Mei is about to get up to get more tea, but Nami stops her and takes the cups her self, letting Mei relax.

She passes by a window and sees the workers outside, clearing debris and getting ready to rebuild. Nami thinks back to the treasure she found in the palace, it wasn't really Long's treasure, it was the emperors. Yao is going to need that for the restoration. Thief or not, Nami has always made it a point to only steal from other pirates or those that deserve it. She runs her hand through her hair, realizing that this the second time she's decided to leave a bundle of treasure behind for a good cause.

The emperor decides to take a short break from overseeing the relief effort and pay a visit to their honored guests. He enters the guest room they managed to find undamaged on the outskirts of the city. Yao finds Luffy alone, stuffing his face with anything the chief can manage to bring him in time. The chief stops to bow, but Yao holds out his hand and smiles, letting the man return to his work.

"I see our guest has quite the appetite." Yao says to the chief.

The chief wipes his brow, exhausted from cooking so much in so little time, "I don't know where he puts it. I hope all these foreigners don't eat like this..." the chief replies.

Yao puts his hand on the chief's shoulder, "He's had a hard battle, I'm sure that he's just refilling his lost stamina. Still, I hope he still has room for the festival tomorrow."

Luffy turns and sees Yao, he doesn't stop eating, but he holds up his hand to greet him.

"Hey." Luffy says with a mouth full of meat, "The food here is great. Thanks a lot mister."

Yao laughs softly at Luffy's refreshingly casual attitude, "It's no problem Sir Luffy, I'm glad you're enjoying our cuisine. I'm sure it's quite different from what you're used to."

Luffy listens, but doesn't really hear Yao as he continues eating, "So, what's this thing that's happening tomorrow?" he asks.

Yao smiles and waves his index finger up, "It's a surprise. Just make sure you and your friends come to the Summer Square tomorrow afternoon."

With that Yao ends his break and heads back out to continue work on the city, leaving Luffy to eat in peace.

The next afternoon the crew all head out together to the southern city square, also known as the Summer Square. It's the same place Robin had defeated the Stealth Corps, once a dark battle field, now an amazing festival ground. The square is filled with booths and food kiosks and game stands. There are large banners and round paper lanterns, and the whole place is filled with festive music.

Everyone is dressed is light summertime robes, many with colorful floral patterns. Despite half the city being wretched, the towns people are lively and happy, greeting their heroes as they are directed to the large guest of honor seating in the center of the square. The seating is a giant ringed table, with seating along the outside. The inside has another ring in it, but it's not another table, it's a series of grittles and cooks. In the true center is a table of exotic ingredients for the main event. The crew all sit down and the music changes to a heavy rapid drum beat. The cooks begin their elaborate cooking performance, chopping meat and vegetables in the air, twirling knives, throwing bottles of sauce and wines around like circus jugglers, all timed to the exotic drumming. The crew looks on with joy, some even cheering. The cooks finish by literally throwing plates of food at them, somehow making them land perfectly in front of each of them. The now freed maidens serve drinks to the crew, including Mei. Sanji waits patiently for his lovely server, only to get someone who shouldn't be serving alcohol to anyone. The little girl Sanji saved offers to pour him a glass, a look of longing in her eyes. She's dresses in one the china dresses some of the maidens had been wearing, how she got one in her size is unknown.

"Drink, my prince?" she says cutely, "Or do you see something else you want?" she holds her finger to her lips and points her hips at Sanji.

Sanji can't even respond to that, she's a nice girl and all, and Sanji doesn't want to hurt her feelings, but this is a tough spot to be in for him. Nami looks on from across the table and snickers at Sanji's tragic love life.

Emperor Yao holds up his glass to make a toast, "I just want to say on the behalf of everyone in this country, that we will never forget what you did for us, and to make sure that we don't, I'm officially making today the first annual Pirate Festival. May we all on this day find the same carefree spirit of these young adventurers. Cheers!"

Everyone in the square holds up their drinks and joins in, "CHEERS!"

The crew all slip into their normal behavior at this point. Luffy begins eating an armies worth of food, including food that isn't on his plate. Zoro drinks more then he eats, but still eats his fill. Nami is pouring drinks for Mei, instead of the other way around, whom she has in a light headlock. Mei gets drunk after only two drinks and Nami scolds her for being such a light weight. Usopp tells tall tales of his fictional exploits to anyone who will listen. Sanji is trying his best to flirt with the pretty girls, but finds it impossible with his little admirer getting in the way. Chopper seems to be eating mostly sweets, laughing at the others antics. Robin eats quietly as always, but stops from time to time to laugh at the controlled chaos. The crew, and all of Huang Long laugh and sing and dance the day away till everyone is either drunk, passed out or too full to eat for a week. Just another day in the life of these particular pirates.

The next day the crew is all on board the Going Merry, at the south west Dock, ready to leave. Yao, Sheng, Mei and Sanji's would be little girlfriend are there to see them off. Mei is teary eyed at having to say goodbye to Nami.

"Can't you stay one more night Miss Nami?" she asks.

Nami smiles and shakes her head, "Sorry Mei, but we really have to get back on our journey."

Sheng squeezes Mei close and smiles, "Well please keep the Divining Pose and return here someday, when your journey is finished." he adds.

The little girl is nearly in tears too, she squeezes her stuffed bunny toy, "Oh, my prince, please return when we can be married. I'll wait for you!" she cries.

Sanji forces a smile and waves, thinking, maybe in ten years...

Luffy grins and looks down at Sheng, "Sure, well come back, when I'm the Pirate King."

Yao steps forward, "Farewell, and have a save voyage my friends."

Usopp notices the emperor still isn't wearing the crown that Long had been wearing, "Hey, how come you never wear that crown thing that Long had? Was it a fake or something?"

"Well to be honest we haven't been able to find it, we think it may have been crushed in the palace during the fight. It's of no concern though, a hat is a hat." Yao says modestly.

The ship begins to pull out of the gate, back into the wide sea. Luffy turns back a moment and yells out to Yao and the others.

"Hey, when that old ramen guy gets back, tell him we had a lot of fun! Okay!?"

Yao looks at Sheng, "Ramen guy?" he asks, confused, "Did they actually meet a citizen of ours out at sea?"

Sheng rubs his chin, thinking, "They couldn't have, no one has left the island since the last trading voyage...but they must have gotten the Divining Pose from someone."

No answers come to them, but it doesn't matter now that everything is back to normal again.

Out in the middle of the Grind Line, the old ramen vendor sits back relaxing, waiting for a fish to bite. He smiles to him self, a job well done.

"Well, it seems I still have a good eye for people after all this time." he muses to him self, "Sorry to trouble you youngsters, but I can't get too directly involved, otherwise people won't bother to try and solve their own problems." He sits up and puts rod aside, it seems it's time to go, "Well, I guess I might as well head home..."

The old man disappears, leaving his boat and possessions behind.

The Going Merry locks back on course to the next island, it's navigator a bit more perky than normal. She sits on the main deck in her fold out chair with a nice new golden accessory.

"Hey, isn't that the emperor's crown?" Luffy asks casually.

Nami smile with a clear conscience, "I prefer to think of it as the Vice-roy's crown, and he won't be needing it any more." she sticks out her tongue and winks cutely.

Usopp stares out at the horizon, as he tries to catch some fish on the port side railing. Something odd catches his eye, something he doesn't believe he could have just seen. A glowing golden serpent, with a long silver beard flies up into the sky like a heavenly angel. It ascends into the clouds and disappears from sight. Usopp has a look of utter shock; he turns to tell his shipmates, but realizes that if even he doesn't believe it, why would they believe him (except for maybe Luffy). Usopp sighs and goes back to fishing, nothing to do but ignore what he thought he saw. There's no way it was "that" after all, just no way. The ship sails onward, bringing them all closer to making their dreams become reality.

Island of the Dragon God - END


End file.
